Jack the Ripper and the East End - Exhibition Info and Review

Jack the Ripper and the East End is on at the Museum in Docklands in London till 2 November 2008. The world's macabre fascination with the Jack the Ripper murders can be quenched with this first ever exhibition to explore the Jack the Ripper murders and their legacy.

Why are people still fascinated with this case? Is it because it was so shocking? Because it remains unsolved? Nearly every night of the year, visitors go on Jack the Ripper walks of London's East End to see the murder locations and hear the gruesome details. It's a bizarre facet of the human psyche.

Pros

• First exhibition to explore these famous murders
• Many exhibits, such as police reports, have not been seen before
• Extensive Events program to accompany the exhibition
• The Museum in Docklands is an excellent venue

Cons

• Somewhat dry
• Don't expect to solve the murders after visiting this exhibition

Visit Duration

1 hour
(But do stay and see the permanent galleries at the Museum in Docklands.)

Please note that due to its sensitive nature this exhibition is not recommended for children under 12 years old.

Opening Times

15 May - 2 November 2008
Daily 10am-6pm
Last admission: 4.45pm

Getting to the Museum in Docklands.

Tickets

Click here to book tickets online or call 0844 980 2151 (booking fee applies).

• Adults: £7.00
• Concessions/Children (due to its sensitive nature this exhibition is not reccommended for children under 12): £5.00
• Museum in Docklands annual ticket holders: £5.00
• Family (1 adult, 2 children): £15.00
• Family (2 adults, 2 children): £20.00
• Disabled carers: Free
• Pre-booked groups of 10 or more people: 20% discount

Includes same-day free admission to Museum in Docklands.

Find out how to get 20% off entry.

Official Website

www.museumindocklands.org.uk/jacktheripper

Between April 1888 and February 1891, eleven women were brutally murdered in London's East End. The press named the serial killer 'Jack the Ripper' as the savagery of the mutilations were horrendous.

Jack the Ripper is world famous and sometimes thought of as an urban legend but the murders were real and the murderer was never found.

The curators have been careful to balance the interest in the murders with the affect on London's East End communities and there is a lot of background information to set the scene. Charles Booth's London Poverty maps are fascinating and the images of London's poor really bring to life how the Victorian poor lived.

Titles such as Poverty, Health, Housing, Religious Reform, Prostitution, and Policing help us to gain an insight into the world Jack the Ripper worked in.

Jack the Ripper's victims were addicted to alcohol, which was not uncommon, as there was no clean drinking water to drink. Look out for the Modern Plague of London -– a pub map of 1885.

Jack the Ripper was not the world's first serial killer but the Museum in Docklands tells us that, "Jack the Ripper is part of London's identity."

Seeing genuine police and witness reports for each murder is what makes this exhibition so unique. Learning more about the way the police handled the case and what means were available to them helps us to understand how it carried on for so long.

I had been warned that this exhibition was gory but I don't know what they were talking about. There are photographs of the murdered women which were the most shocking images of the nineteenth century, but as these are small and in a corner I wasn't horrified. It did bring to life the savagery of the mutilations more than words alone though.

The atmospheric sounds are from screens displaying the History Channel experts describing Jack the Ripper and the murders.

The famous letter to a news agency, supposedly, from Jack the Ripper was by the door, halfway through the exhibition. There was a space in the middle of the room that would have made more sense for such a prize exhibit.

I felt the link between the Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde exhibits and Jack the Ripper was somewhat tenuous -– the suggestion was that the Ripper may have seen these characters.

Conclusion
This exhibition did not bring to life the Jack the Ripper story for me as I felt it was rather dry. The exhibits seemed more about Victorian London's poor than about the story of the murders.

There is a Jack the Ripper and the East End book to accompany this exhibition.