General Information

Hanbury Street is located in Spitalfields in London’s East End. It was the scene of what is generally accepted as the second murder committed by Jack the Ripper – the killing of Annie Chapman.

Additional Information

29 Hanbury Street had been well-documented photographically, particularly in the 1960s, as the threat of demolition loomed. Today, buildings with shops below and flats above can still be found on the south side of Hanbury Street, across from the murder site. But #29, which was on the north side of the street, no longer exists, having been demolished.

Interesting Facts

In 1884, Florence Eleanor Soper, the daughter-in-law of General William Booth of The Salvation Army, inaugurated The Women’s Social Work, which was run from a small house in Hanbury Street. This home for women was set up in the hopes that they would not have to turn to prostitution and provided a safe haven for those who were already suffering from the trade.

Neo-Nazi militant David Copeland detonated a nail-bomb on the street on Saturday 24 April 1999, injuring thirteen people. Copeland intended to place the bomb on adjoining Brick Lane during its weekly market held on Sundays, but mistakenly planted the bomb on a Saturday when the road was less busy. After realising his mistake and unwilling to change the timer on the bomb, he left it on Hanbury Street instead.

Annie Chapman: Highlights

Murdered on the 8th of September 1888, Annie Chapman belongs to the ‘canonical five’ victims of Jack the Ripper. When found dead, her body was terribly mutilated: her throat was cut from left to right and she had been disembowelled, with her intestines thrown out of her abdomen over each of her shoulders. The morgue examination revealed that a part of her uterus was missing. Following the murder, a number of suspects were investigated, but no conclusive evidence was found against any of them.

Annie Chapman: Explained

By 1888, Chapman was living in common lodging houses in Whitechapel and she earned some income from crochet work (making antimacassars and selling flowers), supplemented by casual prostitution. An acquaintance described her as ‘very civil and industrious when sober’, but also noted, ‘I have often seen her the worse for drink”.

Murder: Highlights

On the morning of her death, Chapman found herself without money for her lodging and went out to earn some on the street. At the inquest one of the witnesses, Mrs Elizabeth Long, testified that she had seen Chapman talking to a man at about 5:30 am.

Murder: Explained

Mrs Long described the man as over forty, and a little taller than Chapman, of dark complexion, and of foreign, ‘shabby-genteel’ appearance. He was wearing a deer-stalker hat and a dark overcoat.
Evidence indicated that Chapman may have been killed as late as at 5:30 am, in the enclosed backyard of a house occupied by sixteen people, none of whom had seen or heard anything at the time of the murder. Chapman’s protruding tongue and swollen face led Dr Phillips, the police surgeon, to think that she may have been asphyxiated with the handkerchief around her neck, before her throat was cut. As there was no blood trail leading to the yard, he was certain that she was killed where she was found.