The Jack the Ripper Location Photographs: Dutfield's Yard and the Whitby Collection (10 page)

However, the clincher came as the result of some remarkable work by Robert Clack. In the middle distance of the background, some way off, can be seen two matching gables of a building. The gable on the right has a circular window near its apex, and the gables are separated by what appears to be an irrelevant course of bricks or stone between them. When the photograph was taken of Berner Street in 1909, the photographer also took (from the same position) a lesser-known image of Fairclough Street simply by turning the camera to his left.

The building visible in the background is the Commercial Road Goods Depot and Warehouses belonging to the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway Goods Station. The side facing the photographer was on Gowers Walk. It matches perfectly, in every way, with the building visible in the distance on the 1900 shot. There could now be no doubt whatsoever that the image was indeed of Dutfield’s Yard.

The Album Contents
Most of the photographs in the album were well-composed and covered a huge part of Europe. The owner had written some interesting anecdotes relating to the events around the time the pictures were taken. The first image in the album was badly damaged and almost faded beyond recognition. It was titled ‘Dewey Arch, New York’. This was yet further confirmation on dating the album. The Dewey Arch stood at Madison Square as a triumphal arch built for a parade celebrating the return of Admiral George Dewey, following a military victory at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898. It was designed by the architect Charles R Lamb and quickly constructed in the summer of 1899, the parade being held on 30 September that year (by coincidence, the anniversary of the murder of Elizabeth Stride). After the parade, the arch quickly deteriorated and was thus demolished in 1901.

The following two images were taken in Stratford-on-Avon. The seven after these were all taken in London, with a further Stratford-on-Avon picture in the middle. The very first of the London images was that of Dutfield’s Yard. This was followed by ones of St James’ Park and Tower Bridge. The next is of the Statue of Peace in Smithfield, which the owner has notated as being the ‘scene of burning of Christian Martyrs’ which, according to the historian Martin Fido, makes it likely the photographer was a Protestant because of the phrasing used. The statue was part of a drinking fountain erected by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Society in 1870 and still exists to this day.

Dewey Arch, from the album

A colour postcard view of Dewey Arch, also from 1900

Detail of St James’s Park, from the album

Detail of the Peace Fountain in Smithfield, from the album

The Tower of London, from the album

After the photograph of Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, put in the wrong order, is a faded image of the Tower of London with some soldiers being drilled in front of it. The London set finishes with a shot of the Albert Memorial and the Horseguard.

The photographs then move on to Ireland and in the second image we see the photographer of the other images sitting in a pony-trap with an Irish market-woman and it becomes clear that the owner of the photographs is a woman. She appears in several other photographs, always wearing fairly elaborate headwear with small brims. A few images further on is a picture of the ruins of Ross Castle at Killarney. Underneath this, the photographer has written ‘While taking this photo my party left me behind in Killarney wilderness. Rescued later by Cook jaunting car’. This final sentence provided the key to some fascinating later discoveries.

After the Irish images, there is one of Monte Carlo, three of France, one of Belgium and an ethnic photo of a Dutch family dressed in bizarre clothing.

The next page holds a damaged but awe-inspiring photograph of the picturesque glacier Mer de Glace at Chamonix. The photographer writes underneath ‘Here I crossed without a guide’. It is impossible to contemplate that she actually means she crossed the glacier alone and unaided.

Detail of the photographer with an Irish market-woman, from the album

Ross Castle, from the album

Mer de Glace, from the album

Hotel Deutsches Haus, Bingen, from the album

Detail of the photographer in an ice cave, Mer de Glace, from the album