TREVOR BOND was born in South London to an East End family. He has a long-held fascination with the social and criminal history of London, with a particular interest in the Victorian period. The Ratcliffe (sometimes Ratcliff) Highway dates from at least Saxon Britain, running east from the City of London, London's historic core, along the top of a plateau near the edge of the eponymous "red cliff" which descended onto the low-lying tidal marshes of Wapping to the south. [2] Jamrach, the famous dealer in wild animals. According to one source the animals (including lions) were kept in cages in the basement. [3]

house in view, and so we proceed till we arrive at the commencement of New Gravel-lane. "All this is A nearby shopkeeper, Max Weil had alerted him to suspicious noises – but the heavily armed gang within did not have designs of Weil’s property. Timothy Marr, who was in his twenties, ran a silk mercer’s shop at 29 Ratcliffe Highway, where he lived with his wife Celia, their three-month-old son, also Timothy, his apprentice James Gowan and their servant Margaret Jewell.

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The Birdcage pub, frequented by the gang, still stands within sight of the park. 9. The Whitehall Mystery and The Thames Torso Murders A Roman bath house was excavated in 2004 by the junction of The Highway and Wapping Lane. The discovery of women's jewellery along with soldiers' possessions suggested that this location outside of the Roman walls allowed less restricted use of the baths than those in the City itself. The remains of the baths and under-floor heating system were re-buried under the car-park of a development of new apartments. [6] Song [ edit ] According to Dean Nicholas in Londonist , all were brutally killed in London’s East End, long before London even had the Metropolitan Police (the Met). No one would ever be held accountable for the crimes that terrorized London in 1811.

It was then he discovered the first body in the darkness. James Gowen was lying dead on the floor just inside the door with his skull shattered with such violence that the contents were splattered upon the walls and ceiling. In horror, the pawnbroker stumbled towards the entrance in the dark and came upon the dead body of Mrs Marr lying face down in a pool of blood, her head also broken. Mr Murray struggled to get the door open and cried in alarm, “Murder! Murder! Come and see what murder is here!”Margaret Jewell screamed. The body of Mr Marr was soon discovered too, behind the counter also face down, and someone called out, “The child, where’s the child?”In the basement, they found the baby with its throat slit. There was to be one final gruesome twist, though, when Timothy Marr Junior was discovered in his crib, his head battered and his throat cut. He was 14 weeks old. The narrative explains how and why the readers’s original delight in the gory even sordid murders gradually developed into a preference for the more genteel country house murder mystery.Mrs Celia Marr was the next victim to be discovered, ‘lying on the floor dreadfully wounded and lifeless.’ Her husband Timothy was found behind the counter in the shop, ‘bleeding, profusely about the head, with no signs of life.’ And tragically, the couple’s young son was found dead in his cradle in the kitchen. It is fascinating to speculate on how different our history would have been had Churchill been shot and killed during the fire fight. Had he not been there in 1940 then Lord Halifax would have become Prime Minister and he was known to favour negotiated peace with the Nazis. Fascinating indeed! And in an added extra for the student of East End crime, it stands next to an adjoining house which bears the famous year of 1888 above its door. 6. Thomas Briggs, Britain’s first railway murder On 24 December, more than two weeks after the Marr family had been murdered and five days after the killing of the Williamson family, the maul was identified as belonging to a sailor named John Petersen, who was away at sea. The information was volunteered by a Mr Vermiloe, the landlord of The Pear Tree, who was incarcerated in Newgate Prison for debt. Constables searched the premises and found Petersen's trunk, which was missing a maul. Vermiloe recalled that not only had the maul been in the chest, but that he himself had used it and was responsible for chipping it. That was a significant lead. It has been noted that the substantial reward money for information leading to the arrest of the murderers would have cleared Vermiloe's debts. In the early hours of 3rd January a long file of police officers wound their way through the silent streets of the East End to Sidney Street, which runs from Commercial Road in the south to the junction of Whitechapel and Mile End Roads to the north. The officers had not been told what their mission was but they knew that it was dangerous because the married men had been excluded. Some were armed but their weapons, antique revolvers, tube rifles and shotguns, were more suited to a museum than a gun battle.

value on land, are absolutely helpless at sea ; Swedes and Danes by time score-good mariners all of them; a few Russians,

In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London

I was born in Reading (not great, but it could have been Slough), studied Ancient and Modern History at New College, Oxford, and I've got a PhD in art history from the University of Sussex. This is the second of this author's works I have read. She has an easy to read style with a slight quirkiness, reminiscent of her presentation style on TV. I haven't seen the TV programme/series on which this book was based, but can envisage it from the structure of this book and the general style in which it comes across. John Williams became a main suspect in the case after the maul that had been used in the Marr family murder was linked to a sailor who lodged at the Pear Tree Inn, where Williams also stayed. He had the opportunity to take the maul, whilst his behaviour after the murders was seen as suspicious, and his clothing was reported to be torn and bloody. In the 19th century, the highway was lined either side with small shops, pubs, tenement buildings and narrow, dark alleyways. At night, the area was rife with vice and crime. ‘ Ratcliffe Highway‘ is a traditional song with lyrics containing a warning to any sailors who plan to go for a drink at an alehouse on Ratcliffe Highway.