Jack the Ripper Walking Tour with Expert Ripperologist

This was my kids (18 and 21) first trip to London, so what the kids want, the kids get. I am just glad they didnt ask for the Crown Jewels. This tour was my daughters idea, she is the family fan of all things macabre and horror. My wife went the extra mile and booked it as a private tour, just the four of us. I was skeptical, expecting a great deal of cheese, etc. That is not at all what we got. As we waited for our tour to start, I saw a lady about our age walk up, dressed as if she had just stepped out of the 1880's. Well, if they had Apple tablets in the 1880's, LOL. That was Jenny, our guide. Y'all, she was absolutely perfect! She knew her stuff forward and back. She showed us photographs of the area during Jacks reign of terror, so we could get an idea of how the area looked 150 years ago. She explained the social and economic makeup of the Whitechapel area at that time. I learned a great deal about the people who lived in the area. She was detailed about Jacks victims, her words drawing a picture of how they might have looked before Jack had his way with them. She was also very knowledgeable about current things in the city, from restaurants, to the churches and the people. It was evident that she is a well known and popular member of the community, as she was greeted every other block by name. She also answered all our questions and shared some of her opinions about Jack and his real identity. I had the sense that she could sit down with you over a pint at 5 in the afternoon and still be talking about Jack at 5 the next morning...well, I guess that would depend on how many pints you had. If you have the chance to take this tour with Jenny Philips, jump at it. I would do it again tomorrow....if I were in London!

Lindsey is a passionate historian who goes to great lengths with her knowledge of late 18th century East London to set the scene and get you to appreciate what it was like back then. She included some famous streets and period landmark buildings which made it all very interesting. She has a great sense of humour and a lot of respect for the victims when recounting the gruesome murder details. Her tour comes highly recommended.

We enjoyed the tour, visiting the different sites and the guide was very knowledgeable and personable with a good sense of humour. There was a good mixture of detail about the murders and investigation as well as bringing this into the context of the lives of the individuals and of the wider populace in 1880s Whitechapel - aided by the showing of contemporary images on a large tablet. We were particularly interested in the information given about the buildings in the area that still exist which they would have known and frequented. The group was quite large - about 25 people and it was a busy Saturday night with lots of raucousness and traffic noise which unfortunately did make it quite difficult to hear at times and the mini sound system didn't seem to function too well but overall this did not detract too much from the experience.