Jacob The Ripper (T. & N. I'anson)

[Karsten Giese]

You can see there a rear of a building in Goulston Street with staircases which led to seperate floors...

Forget it! It was New Goulston Street. Sorry...

[Chris Phillips]

It looks to me to be the one to the right facing Wentworth Street. The block which had 108 - 119 did not have windows on the side.

Rob

Yes, I think that's right. Google Streetview has pictures taken from the top of the Goulston Street block, which shows the rear of the Wentworth Street block, and it matches the old photo:
https://goo.gl/maps/zyM5SSvkoSWq1GWE6

Interesting that the parts that now have white walls used to be either wholly or in part open balconies. There were similar balconies at the rear of the block on the west side of Goulston Street:
https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/...=1602180464715

I would say the now white-walled parts at the back of the block we are interested in, behind the stairwells, were also open balconies. The broad arch at the top of the white section looks identical to the one in the old photo of the rear of the Wentworth Street block:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/3233439033

[Karsten Giese]

The New Goulston Street photo, no idea whether it is the front or rear side:

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/06...th-mike-myers/

[Rob Clack]

The New Goulston Street photo, no idea whether it is the front or rear side:

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/06...th-mike-myers/

It's from the courtyard but not certain that it is looking towards New Goulston Street. I think it is looking towards the old Whitechapel Baths in Goulston Street. It would be this entrance towards the end of the building.

[Rob Clack]

Yes, I think that's right. Google Streetview has pictures taken from the top of the Goulston Street block, which shows the rear of the Wentworth Street block, and it matches the old photo:
https://goo.gl/maps/zyM5SSvkoSWq1GWE6

Interesting that the parts that now have white walls used to be either wholly or in part open balconies. There were similar balconies at the rear of the block on the west side of Goulston Street:
https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/...=1602180464715

I would say the now white-walled parts at the back of the block we are interested in, behind the stairwells, were also open balconies. The broad arch at the top of the white section looks identical to the one in the old photo of the rear of the Wentworth Street block:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/3233439033

What has just struck me is that in 1888 the only entrances at the front were the stairwell entrances so presumably the doorways to the rooms were off the staircases. Yet the photographs of the entrance to 108 - 119 don't show a way into the ground floor rooms so I wonder how people got into them?

[Chris Phillips]

Hi Michael. Did Harrison's photograph convince you at all? Assuming he had the right building, it looks like there was a passage running through to the back of the building, doesn't it? What sort of building, doesn't have a rear exit?

I think that picture is showing the same block that appears in the centre of this one:
https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/...=1602187651897


That is the rear of the block on Wentworth Street, to the west of Goulston Street.

[Karsten Giese]

It's from the courtyard but not certain that it is looking towards New Goulston Street. I think it is looking towards the old Whitechapel Baths in Goulston Street. It would be this entrance towards the end of the building.

[ATTACH]21567[/ATTACH]

[Edward Stow]

If you go into the courtyard, via New Goulston Street, of the western section of the dwellings - that face Wentworth Street - you can see the rear exit. It isn't a door, it would have been an open exit like at the front. It is now bricked up as the ground floor level has been lowered to street level and the roof of the sub basement correspondingly lowered when the ground floors were converted to retail. The ground floors were originally slightly higher than ground floor level.
I'm 99% sure it's the same on the eastern side - the side where the apron was left. The internal courtyard was for drying clothes etc so the residents needed access.
I have photos somewhere.

[Chris Phillips]

If you go into the courtyard, via New Goulston Street, of the western section of the dwellings - that face Wentworth Street - you can see the rear exit. It isn't a door, it would have been an open exit like at the front. It is now bricked up as the ground floor level has been lowered to street level and the roof of the sub basement correspondingly lowered when the ground floors were converted to retail. The ground floors were originally slightly higher than ground floor level.
I'm 99% sure it's the same on the eastern side - the side where the apron was left. The internal courtyard was for drying clothes etc so the residents needed access.
I have photos somewhere.

Yes, I've just posted some photos of the rear of that block, which I think is also shown in the photo R. J. Palmer posted from Harrison. There were certainly rear entrances there, but I can't see any sign that there were front entrances. It looks to me as though each block had either a front entrance or a rear entrance, but not both.

[Edward Stow]

Checking through my photos...
The original front entrance is now into Happy Days Chip shop.
The original rear entrance is also in Happy Days Chip Shop.
There is a large repro of the old front entrance within the old rear entrance.
It can be seen here...

[Rob Clack]

Checking through my photos...
The original front entrance is now into Happy Days Chip shop.
The original rear entrance is also in Happy Days Chip Shop.
There is a large repro of the old front entrance within the old rear entrance.
It can be seen here...
[ATTACH]21570[/ATTACH]

Are you sure that door wasn't put in during the refurbishments in the 1990s? I think it was. And it would be odd that there was only one door at the rear and not four.

[Howard Brown]