Ripper-Watch

The romance of London's mythical murderer

Cemetery tours, ghost hunts, the London Dungeons, Jack the Ripper pub tours – tourism in London is specially geared to all things gruesome. Just as visitors are whipped round the iconic London buildings such as Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, they are also herded round the East End’s grimmest murder sites while a tour guide dances about in front firing grisly facts at them and some out-of-work actors 'recreate' Victorian street life by donning cloaks and dodgy cockney accents.

The legend of Jack the Ripper is the very foundation of London's morbid tourist market. Jack the Ripper walking tours, Jack the Ripper coach tours, Jack the Ripper posters, t-shirts, pencils, comics, books, films… And now we have a new bit of evidence to keep pseudo-intellectuals across the globe fanatical in their Rippermania. The scientific analysis of a scratched 18ct gold pocket-watch, belonging to James Maybrick, a respectable Liverpool cotton merchant, shows that the scratched initials of five Ripper victims as well as the oh so mysterious words "I am Jack" are over 100 years old. However tenuous, people are excitedly prattling on about the final piece in the jigsaw.

"Ripperology" is, staggeringly enough, an official scientific term. No doubt a whole new encyclopaedia of "Ripperature" can now be written on the back of this recent discovery. Like all good conspiracy theories the Ripper mystery is shrouded in controversy, hoax diaries, destroyed files, shamed Royals and contentious debates. Mostly, however, it is a magnet for people who’ve read one too many Agatha Christie novels, and have convinced themselves that they have the Poirot-like skills to find a solution from century-old evidence. Crime writer, Patricia Cornwell surpassed all other Ripperologists in her quest for the truth, when she spent $6m researching a book in which she named the British artist Walter Sickert as the Ripper. She even mutilated a Sickert painting in a bid to prove her theory. Six million dollars later and the world now bereft of a fine work of art, her theory (published under the title 'Jack the riper: Case Closed') has been dismissed and the Ripperologists battle on.

Based on real events, the Ripper myth has become a manufactured and marketable product. The tourists continue to file off coaches and traipse across Whitechapel to stare at an area of concrete famed to be Murder Site No.2, before moving on to an equally compelling piece of pavement that is Murder Site No.3. A few slightly more enterprising tours stop for a pint at every pub that’s ever been connected with the story. The sight of 200 Americans stampeding down the street to gaze at the cobbles outside your front door would be understandably intimidating. In 2001, the friendly cockney residents attempted to disperse the crowds by throwing eggs at tour parties, but this had little impact. Visitors continue to flock to the East End in their thousands from dawn till dusk, day in day out.

A collective sulk

Handbags at ten paces in the artworld this week as Charles Saatchi feels left out of the fashionable rush to donate works to the Tate. Possibly put out by the column inches devoted to this cause, Sir Charles Saatchi has announced that he offered a substantial chunk of his collection to Sir Nicholas Serota, only to have it rejected. Saatchi’s gift, which would have included Damien Hirst’s shark and Tracey Emin’s bed, was rejected because of a lack of space. He pronounced himself glad that the offer was rejected in the end, as he wouldn’t want to have to visit the Tate to see his work. Ooooh.

Not to be outdone, Sir Nicholas Serota countered that he understood why Saatchi had wanted to get his work out of ‘gloomy’ County Hall, but had been unable to accomodate him due to the cost and slow pace of refurbishment.

Record times for Olympic travel

Lord Coe’s dream of bringing the Olympic Games to London in 2012 came a step closer this month with the team behind the bid delivering their proposal to the IOC. One of its cornerstone policies is the transport development infrastructure that will be implemented. It is intended that there will be a high-speed bullet train connecting central London with the Olympic village. The journey is estimated at seven minutes. With this, and the extension of several tube and rail-lines, the proposal says that "London 2012 will be the best-connected Games ever – one train every 15 seconds".

Autumnal Auction Action

More than half a billion dollars worth of painting and sculptures went on sale this week at Sotheby’s and Christie’s annual autumn sales. A $25m Modigliani and $15m canvasses by Monet, Van Gogh and Warhol are all up for sale, along with a 1904 Monet depicting the Houses of Parliament which has never been sold before and could fetch $18 million.

According to the auctioneers, the huge volumes of art on sale indicate a ‘bull market’ in art which buyers are keen to exploit – in other words, prices are over-inflated and a slow-down is around the corner, so this is a good time to sell at the top of the market. This truism will probably not affect sales. Rather the impatient nature of art collectors should see new records set in a pre-Christmas buying frenzy.

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