Whitechapel has hit saturation point when it comes to tours featuring Jack the Ripper, with clusters of 100 or more and guides sporting megaphones.
London’s most infamous and fascinating serial killer has long engrossed people to the streets of Whitechapel, and it was unavoidable that enterprising companies would emerge in the wake of such avid interest.
However, in the past few years, what started as a fairly small scale attraction has evolved into a cumbersome behemoth, with several rival tour guides running numerous tours every night, gathering groups of at least 50 and sometimes up to 100 tourists around the same tiny area of streets. The new unproven introduction of the killer’s identity has only added to the odd obsession some people have with him.
Now, after tolerating years of this continuous tourist traffic, many inhabitants are starting to fight back.
A tour guide with one of the larger companies, admits she has had to deal with abuse. “Sometimes you get yelled at by residents or intimidated with fines. It’s typically innocent, but it’s not very enjoyable”.
She also mentions how other tour chaperons use megaphones to be heard, and how some take groups of up to 100 at one time. The same concerns that are annoying residents are similarly becoming negatives for the tourists themselves. One customer criticised it by saying “The locations were unquestionably teeming with these apparently ‘authentic’ ripper tours. Whitechapel was literally overflowing with tour groups and it was tough to concentrate with so many individuals in one area. Our tour group consisted of 50 people, which was way too many.”
While these tours certainly bring a lot of commerce to the area, on the other hand they also get other shoppers’ nerves, taking place every day except for Christmas and Boxing Day, there really is no break for those who reside or work in the area.
A local inhabitant who lives near Brick Lane, says: “It’s unrelenting. Visualise hundreds of strangers trekking deafeningly through every day, would you be happy about it?
Thankfully, we don’t currently offer a package which includes Jacks old haunts, but we have a variety of amazing other tours to take you on, which won’t involve you and 99 other tourists being shouted at down a megaphone.
From such humble beginnings we now operate the most modern and prestigious fleet of 16 luxury motor cars, people carriers and coaches. Our multi award winning, expert guides are widely regarded by travel associations worldwide to be the very best, who along with my trusted team of dedicated chauffeurs all share my passion for excellence in customer satisfaction.
We continue to tour our ever increasing portfolio of private and corporate clients from all over the world to London and to all parts of Great Britain. Due to customer demand we have also extended our exclusive tour service to Paris and France. We are headquartered in London and we also have offices in Windsor, Beaconsfield and Paris.