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We currently hold 6
meetings a year on the first Saturday in every other month,
commencing with February.
The main features of the meeting is a talk which promotes the
study of the Whitechapel Murders and the social impact that this
event had on the East End of London.
There is a nominal entrance fee |
Venue: "The Aldgate Exchange", 133-137
Whitechapel High Street, London E1
- situated between Aldgate East underground station
and Goulston Street.
Time: The evening commences at 7.45pm with doors opening at
7.00pm.
Dates: The first Saturday of every month.
Those in February, April, June, August, October and December have
guest speakers. |
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Speakers - 2008
The following dates and
speakers are correct at the time of going to press.
Saturday 2nd February -
John Barber
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'THE
CAMDEN TOWN MURDERS'
On the morning of September 12, 1907, the body of Emily Dimmock
was found in her rented rooms in Camden Town, London. The murderer
has never been identified. This is the story of the victim; along
with an account of the times in which she lived, and the
circumstances surrounding her death. Is this another crime of the
imagination? Recent books have seen parallels between The Camden
Town Murder, the Whitechapel killings of Jack the Ripper, and The
Peasenhall Mystery of 1902. Case Solved !!! In The Camden Town
Murder, John Barber presents a modern day investigation, analysing
and retracing the events with the story's protagonists; as well as
bringing to light vital clues which, back then had escaped the
judge's attention . This is a social history and an account of the
human condition of the people living in the Victorian and
Edwardian eras, the upper classes and their domestic servants, the
'fallen women', the music-halls, the artists, and the demi-monde.
All these moving against alternating backgrounds of greys, black
and crimson, and enraptured with the vapours of wormwood.
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Saturday 5th April - Shirley Harrison
| Sylvia Pankhurst - A
Maverick life:
George Bernard Shaw declared, 'There are only two opinions about
about her. One was that she was miraculous. The other that she was
unbearable'. In this talk, Shirley Harrison looks at the life of
Sylvia Pankhurst, a prominent campaigner in the suffragette
movement but who continued to make an impact on the world stage
long after the crusade for women's suffrage had been won.
Campaigning for women and workers, Sylvia Pankhurst was also an
important figure in the communist movement and a keen supporter of
Haile Selassie, and is the only foreigner to have been given a
state funeral by the Emperor of Ethiopia. |
Saturday 7th June - Sarah Wise
"Persons Unknown": The people of the
Old Nichol, in fact, in fiction and Ripper Mythology.
Police would not patrol there, even in daylight; no stranger
would chance their arm there; it was a nest of cosh-carriers and
prostitutes. With these sorts of stories, The Old Nichol has had
a terrible press over the past 150 year or so, and ‘The Old
Nichol Gang’ have even been put in the frame for the Whitechapel
Killings. But who were they? And why did this 15-acre slum just
north of the Wheler Street arch have such a dreadful reputation?
A close examination of surviving documentation – memoirs, police
and court records, parliamentary papers, the archives of the
London County Council, and Charles Booth’s Life and Labour
survey – allows us to piece together a much more complex picture
of the Nichol at the time of the Ripper killings, and, in the
process, the Nichol legend dies a death.
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Saturday 2nd August -
Fiona Kendall-Lane
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"The McCarthys and Kendalls
Uncovered" A talk about the little-known
background regarding family members - Jack, Steve, Shaun McCarthy
and Marie, Terry, Kay Kim Kendall. |
Saturday 4th October -
Lindsay Siviter
A 20th Anniversary talk
on the film ‘Jack the Ripper’
Lindsay will present,
A 20th Anniversary talk
on the film ‘Jack the Ripper’ (Thames
Lorimar TV) (1988, Great Britain/USA) which had Michael
Caine as Inspector Abberline and Lewis Collins as Sergeant Godley.
The film was released in a blaze of publicity when first shown on
British television in October 1988 and Lindsay informs us that
after much interviewing, delving and researching, she will present
new & exclusive material concerning the film production. An
evening not to be missed! |
Saturday 6th December -
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