Mitre Square - Aerial photograph taken in 1934

[Chris Scott]

An aerial shot of Aldgate in 1934 which shows Mitre Square

[Howard Brown]

Thanks amigo !

The City sure looks crowded from that view.

[Chris G.]

Hi Chris and Howard

I might be wrong but I believe there may be better and clearer period aerial views of Mitre Square and other areas of interest to us.

Best regards

Chris

[George Hutchinson]

Maybe I should point out here that it is the beginning of the end; Priory House (on the north and eastern sides) is about to come down. St James's Passage (as in the old Church Passage) now has a covered wooden walkway running down it. The eastern side is completely covered up. There are two pairs of stacked Portakabins in front of Priory House on the northern side and both sides are fenced off. There's no access from St James' Place and Duke's Passage is now blocked off. The internal part of the square and Ripper's Corner are - as yet - untouched and accessible.

PHILIP

[Roy Corduroy]

Mitre Square will still be there, though. An open space in the same place, according to this slideshow. (click) With doublewide planters in the middle.

You could still do your tour stop there once construction is over. At least I'm hoping you can. It might put a new panache to it.

Roy
Positive Thinker

[George Hutchinson]

Hi Roy. The point is that the internal dimensions of the Square - the original cloister of the 12th century Priory Of The Holy Trinity - will be gone. Yep, we'll still have Ripper's Corner but absolutely nothing to appear as it once did. Besides, those tower blocks look SO tall, I'm guessing we're going to have several YEARS without getting in there. The new hotel being built over Aldgate East tube is a fraction of that height and it's been going on for about half a decade already and is still nowhere near finished.

Latest update is that Priory House is being gutted. Some of the floors have had their glass removed.

PHILIP

[Phillip Walton]

The square had been very little altered when I worked there in the 1960's from what it was like when KE was murdered. Even the butler sink that JTR reputedly washed the blood off his hands was still extant. Ten years later all had been replaced except for the square itself so I don't feel that concerned about the buildings being demolished, they have only lasted less than half as long as the Victorian buildings.

[String]

It would be great if we had a flyover thingy, like google earth but for previous decades.

[Chris G.]

It would be great if we had a flyover thingy, like google earth but for previous decades.

One of the surprises for the upcoming 2013 Ripper convention is that the organizers have rented the Tardis for the weekend and should be able to do exactly that. Whoops, spoke out of turn.

[SPE]

Mitre Square

This is a shot looking into Mitre Square from Church Passage as it looked in the mid-1960s when I first went there -

[SPE]

Ripper's Corner

Ripper's Corner, Mitre Square in the mid 1960s -

[Phillip Walton]

That certainly brings back memories. The butler sink I spoke of above was in Dukes Passage IIRC on the left when leaving the square, the passage was considerably narrower than it is today, the sink was in a recess. The entire square was occupied by Kealey & Tonge in the 1960's the basements being interconnected, the building in the photograph on the left being connected also by a bridge over Dukes Passage to the building in the background. Although the main building to the right of the photographer adjoined the central block over Church Passage it was only possible to move to the other buildings via the basement probably due to different floor levels (it was originally a warehouse and had very high ceilings).
EDIT I was referring to the first photo.