The Jack the Ripper Location Photographs: Dutfield's Yard and the Whitby Collection by Philip Hutchinson Page A
Authors: Philip Hutchinson
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couples lacking in any social skills. Given the option of attending a slide show about the town of Stamford or venturing out by myself, I chose the latter and left the building to attend Lincoln’s Ghost Walk.
Margaret Green has run these popular walks in the city for some years and once escorted Tom Hanks on a private tour whilst he was filming The Da Vinci Code in Lincoln Cathedral. Not only did I find her guiding infinitely more engaging than the uninspired mutterings of the holiday organisers but we struck up an instant rapport and I stayed in touch once her tour was over.
I have been a Council Member of the world’s oldest paranormal organisation, The Ghost Club, since 2001 and, as Events Officer, it is my responsibility to book speakers on the subject of ghosts and hauntings for the group’s monthly lectures in central London. Thus it was that, having met with Margaret and her husband Norm in Lincoln a couple of times since 2000, I booked her to speak in April 2007.
Before the talk began, we sat in the venue’s bar to catch up on the year’s respective gossip. In passing conversation Margaret commented that she had found something in her kitchen drawer at home that may interest me. Knowing that I was already by that time a Jack the Ripper tour guide of some years standing in the East End, she said that her uncle had taken some photos of locations connected to the crimes in the 1960s and wondered if I would like to see them. The gap between the end of her question and my reply was almost impossibly short.
Within days, a padded envelope fell through my letterbox, sent Recorded Delivery. As I walked down a Guildford hill on my way to work, I ripped the packaging open to find a cheap blue 24-page photo album inside. A label stuck on the front, in Margaret’s handwriting, bore the words ‘ Views of where Jack the Ripper killed his victims taken by JOHN G WHITBY ’. As I flicked the album open, I found a modern press cutting about the murders cut from a broadsheet and a set of ten cream-coloured envelopes. All the Basildon Bond envelopes were yellowing with age and all had clearly been written upon in black ink at the same time. The first envelope in the series read ‘ looking towards Dorset ST from Thrawl st ’.
Margaret and Norman Green at the entrance to the service road that was once Dorset Street, June 2009
The photograph album that contained The Whitby Collection
On pulling out the envelope and flipping it open, I found a well-composed and sharp (but clearly amateur) image of a familiar location, yet seemingly bereft of any traffic. It was the corner of Thrawl Street and Commercial Street in Whitechapel, looking north towards Duval Street (as Dorset Street was renamed in 1904) and things were only to get more exciting as I inspected the contents of the envelopes that followed, so much so that I could actually feel my fingers tingling as I saw them for the first time.
When I got back home that night, I immediately phoned Margaret and, upon request, she agreed to sell me the photographs and the rights to them on condition her name was credited on each reproduction and she was kept informed each time they were to be used in a book or publication.
John Gordon Whitby was born to Walter and Gertrude in March 1911. He had three brothers; William Guy (known as Guy, and Margaret’s father, born in 1908), Walter Terence (known as Terry, born in 1909), and a third brother who tragically died shortly after birth; a nurse decided that the infant needed some fresh air and opened a window, at which point the baby turned blue and quickly expired. John was himself seriously ill as a child and, until the age of nine years, was largely confined to a wheelchair.
John’s father, Walter Herbert Whitby (born in 1881), was a Mason and held an important position as the Head of Housing for Hull Council. He was also an organist and played before King George VI and Queen Mary. Together with Gertrude (born in 1880) he gave
Margaret Green has run these popular walks in the city for some years and once escorted Tom Hanks on a private tour whilst he was filming The Da Vinci Code in Lincoln Cathedral. Not only did I find her guiding infinitely more engaging than the uninspired mutterings of the holiday organisers but we struck up an instant rapport and I stayed in touch once her tour was over.
I have been a Council Member of the world’s oldest paranormal organisation, The Ghost Club, since 2001 and, as Events Officer, it is my responsibility to book speakers on the subject of ghosts and hauntings for the group’s monthly lectures in central London. Thus it was that, having met with Margaret and her husband Norm in Lincoln a couple of times since 2000, I booked her to speak in April 2007.
Before the talk began, we sat in the venue’s bar to catch up on the year’s respective gossip. In passing conversation Margaret commented that she had found something in her kitchen drawer at home that may interest me. Knowing that I was already by that time a Jack the Ripper tour guide of some years standing in the East End, she said that her uncle had taken some photos of locations connected to the crimes in the 1960s and wondered if I would like to see them. The gap between the end of her question and my reply was almost impossibly short.
Within days, a padded envelope fell through my letterbox, sent Recorded Delivery. As I walked down a Guildford hill on my way to work, I ripped the packaging open to find a cheap blue 24-page photo album inside. A label stuck on the front, in Margaret’s handwriting, bore the words ‘ Views of where Jack the Ripper killed his victims taken by JOHN G WHITBY ’. As I flicked the album open, I found a modern press cutting about the murders cut from a broadsheet and a set of ten cream-coloured envelopes. All the Basildon Bond envelopes were yellowing with age and all had clearly been written upon in black ink at the same time. The first envelope in the series read ‘ looking towards Dorset ST from Thrawl st ’.
Margaret and Norman Green at the entrance to the service road that was once Dorset Street, June 2009
The photograph album that contained The Whitby Collection
On pulling out the envelope and flipping it open, I found a well-composed and sharp (but clearly amateur) image of a familiar location, yet seemingly bereft of any traffic. It was the corner of Thrawl Street and Commercial Street in Whitechapel, looking north towards Duval Street (as Dorset Street was renamed in 1904) and things were only to get more exciting as I inspected the contents of the envelopes that followed, so much so that I could actually feel my fingers tingling as I saw them for the first time.
When I got back home that night, I immediately phoned Margaret and, upon request, she agreed to sell me the photographs and the rights to them on condition her name was credited on each reproduction and she was kept informed each time they were to be used in a book or publication.
John Gordon Whitby was born to Walter and Gertrude in March 1911. He had three brothers; William Guy (known as Guy, and Margaret’s father, born in 1908), Walter Terence (known as Terry, born in 1909), and a third brother who tragically died shortly after birth; a nurse decided that the infant needed some fresh air and opened a window, at which point the baby turned blue and quickly expired. John was himself seriously ill as a child and, until the age of nine years, was largely confined to a wheelchair.
John’s father, Walter Herbert Whitby (born in 1881), was a Mason and held an important position as the Head of Housing for Hull Council. He was also an organist and played before King George VI and Queen Mary. Together with Gertrude (born in 1880) he gave
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