Abstract
On the streets of Whitechapel, London, independent tour guides are operating where official heritage organizations will not tread. The East End has recently experienced a rapid proliferation of thanatourism in the form of Ripper tours and a Ripper ‘museum’. This essay offers a survey and account of this Ripper tourism. Its central concern is with the Ripper tours, which it considers as street theatre. The essay looks at the narrative and performance modes guides draw on to negotiate their highly contentious subject matter, and considers the tours’ complex relation to the Gothic.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Coffey, Helen. 2014. “Are Jack the Ripper Tours Blighting London?” The Telegraph, September 26. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/Are-Jack-the-Ripper-tours-blighting-London/.
Cunningham, David. 2007. Living in the Slashing Grounds: Jack the Ripper, Monopoly Rent and the New Heritage. In Warwick and Willis Jack the Ripper: Media, Culture, History, edited by Alexandra Warwick and Martin Willis, 159–75. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Germanà, Monica. 2014. “Guilty Pleasures: Haunting Whitechapel.” Keynote address, accompanying author’s photographic exhibition, October 22–25, 2014, Limerick University.
Hoskins, Tansy. 2015. “How the Jack the Ripper Industry Distorts London’s East End.” The Guardian, August 4. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/aug/04/jack-the-ripper-industry-distort-london-east-end-prostitution-cable-street-museum.
Jones, Mark. 2017. Jack the Representation: The Ripper in Culture. In Neo-Victorian Villains: Adaptations and Transformations in Popular Culture, edited by Benjamin Poore, 161–79. Amsterdam: Rodopi Press.
Khomami, Nadia. 2015. “Museum Billed as Celebration of London Women Opens as Jack the Ripper Exhibit.” The Guardian, July 29. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jul/29/museum-billed-as-celebration-of-london-women-opens-as-jack-the-ripper-exhibit.
Riddell, Fern. 2015. “Jack the Ripper Museum: This Shock Attraction Left Me Sick to My Stomach.” The Telegraph, October 12. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11926093/Jack-the-Ripper-Museum-London-shock-attraction-left-me-horrified.html.
Seaton, A. V. 1996. “Guided by the Dark: From Thanatopsis to Thanatourism.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 2: 234–44.
Warnock, Becky. 2015. “A Promised ‘Women’s Museum’ Opens as a Jack the Ripper Exhibit Tonight, and I Won’t Take It Lying Down.” The Independent, August 4. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/a-promised-womens-museum-opens-as-a-jack-the-ripper-exhibit-tonight-and-i-wont-take-it-lying-down-10436860.html.
Warwick, Alexandra, and Martin Willis (eds.). 2007. Jack the Ripper: Media, Culture, History. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Robert Lee, David Short, Catherine Spooner , Herbie Treehead, Joy Bariana, Ayesha Taylor and Natalie Wall.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McEvoy, E. (2018). ‘I Hate This Job’: Guiding Ripper Tours in the East End. In: Jones, K., Poore, B., Dean, R. (eds) Contemporary Gothic Drama. Palgrave Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95359-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95359-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95358-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95359-2
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)