The ghosts of London past

Walking tours trace Jack the Ripper's trail and other famous dead

ROSEMARY MCCLURE

The cobblestone street is dark and slick from rain; the clouds are heavy and low.

But light spills from Ten Bells pub. Inside, lagers and ales are poured, and a dozen patrons are drinking, laughing and lounging at the dark-wood bar.

More than 100 years ago, during what came to be called the Autumn of Terror, serial killer Jack the Ripper stalked this small pub in London's East End. Two of his victims were thought to have walked out its door.

Today, the pub has become the centerpiece of one of London's most popular walking tours -- the Jack the Ripper Walk.

"I've tried to figure out why the tour's so popular,'' said author and guide Richard Jones, who leads nightly walks through the area where the 19th-century Ripper murders occurred.

"It's a very sordid story: five women brutally murdered,'' Jones said. "You know what's really strange? The majority of the people who take the tour are women.''

Jack the Ripper's gruesome offences would qualify him for membership in any hall of infamy, even in London -- a city with more than its share of grisly crimes and haunted locales. With its long history of murder, mayhem and macabre incidents, London has the daunting distinction of being the most haunted capital city in the world.

I explored the city's sinister streets one night last spring on a Haunted London tour. With the city's dark, narrow streets and ancient alleyways as a backdrop, it didn't take much imagination to hear ghosts wailing in the wind, see headless soldiers in the shadows and feel a chill down my spine when I heard tales of haunted palaces, theatres, prisons and cathedrals.

The tour piqued my interest, so I made a few calls. One was to the Tower of London, grim scene of executions and torture and the source of legends and ghost stories.

Almost a millennium old, Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress -- its full title -- is a symbol of the nation, looming over the London skyline for centuries. Its checkered history, combined with the British crown jewels displayed there, draws nearly 2.5 million visitors each year.

Most want to hear stories about the Tower's famous prisoners, such as Anne Boleyn, Guy Fawkes and Sir Walter Raleigh, and the beheadings that took place.

"Head chopping is what it was called,'' said Tower Beefeater Chris Morton. Morton is the Yeoman sergeant in charge of the warders, or Beefeaters, who guard the Tower at night.

"Heads were chopped off with a block and an axe. Head chopping continued until 1747, when it was thought to be barbaric. Then hanging became the favorite method of execution,'' he said.

Yeoman warders like Morton -- known for their blue and red garb -- have guarded the Tower since the 14th century. Thirty-five share the duty today, living in Tower apartments and houses with their families -- 120 full-time residents at one of London's spookiest addresses.

"A bit like living in Disneyland,'' Morton said. "You can never get away from your work.''

"But what about the ghosts?'' I asked.

"Some people live here for years and never see anything; others are here only a short time and say they feel or see things. Not me, though,'' he quickly added. "I've never seen anything.''

Among those who have felt an otherworldly presence is Janice Field, wife of the Tower's resident governor, Geoffrey Field. It's the couple's home -- called the Queen's House -- that is said to be haunted.

"It may be a female ghost,'' Morton said, "because if a woman goes into certain rooms, the ghost appears and physically throws her out. It's happened to Janice several times.''

Some storytellers say Boleyn, beheaded by order of her husband, Henry VIII, in 1536 -- it was not a "head chopping'' because she apparently was slain with a sword -- was imprisoned in the house until her death and often appears there. Others say she haunts the Tower's Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, where she is buried.

"A lot of those stories were made up by the Victorians,'' Morton said. "They just wanted people to visit the Tower.''

"Tourist stories?'' I asked.

"Exactly.''

London has its share of skeptics who appear on TV and the lecture circuit debunking paranormal activity and disparaging those who believe in ghosts, goblins and things that go bump in the night.

But for every skeptic, there's a true believer, and such organizations as the Institute of Paranormal Research help further the stories. The institute in London investigates UFOs, occult activity and ghosts throughout Britain.

Jones, who has written 11 guidebooks -- his latest on the Jack the Ripper tour will be published next year -- is popular on the TV and lecture circuit. He guides Ripper tours five nights a week.

"It's hugely competitive,'' Jones said. "More than a million people take the tours each year. On any one night, you can count 20 to 30 groups going out.''

London is one of the world's best cities to explore on foot. The walking tours add the expertise of a guide and the security of visiting the area in a group -- the city's East End can still be a dicey place to walk at night, as it was in the Ripper's era.

The tours generally last about two hours and cost about $12.

On one tour, we started at dusk in Southwark, across the Thames River from the City of London.

The area boasts the resurrected Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which opened in 1997. But for the most part, the streets and buildings are old, historic and creepy, especially at night.At Clink Street, we walked beneath a model of a gibbet and a decomposing body. Unfamiliar with "gibbets''? It's a gallows with a crossbeam: Criminals were hung from it in chains, and their bodies were left to decompose.

This gibbet marked the location of Clink Prison. The Clink -- hence the origin of the phrase "in the clink'' -- was a notorious prison that burned down in the late 18th century. A prison museum marks the site.

We also stopped at the Church of St. Bartholomew the Great. Founded in 1123, it is London's oldest parish church and is said to be haunted by a monk who is seen in his cowled robe sometimes in the pulpit, at other times lurking in the shadows.

Even without the legend, the dimly lighted church is eerie. It's a setting filmmakers appreciate: St. Bart's was the location of the fourth wedding in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral and of some scenes in Shakespeare in Love.

Our final stop was in the East End, site of the Ripper's five murders. Some of the women haunt the area, our guide said. I wondered why Jack the Ripper's crimes had become so well-known. Jones' theory: Jack the Ripper was the first mass-media killer. His murders were reported by newspapers around the world. For 10 weeks in 1888, terror reigned, wrought by the knife of Jack the Ripper.