The Jack the Ripper Location Photographs: Dutfield's Yard and the Whitby Collection (9 page)

Detail from the Goad’s fire insurance map, May 1899
(Courtesy Robert Clack)

Berner Street, showing the entrance to Dutfield’s Yard, 7 April 1909

The same view, now Henriques Street, in 2009

So much for having to account for the supposed inconsistencies; now for further confirmation of the location. Researcher Tom Wescott undertook an exhaustive study of Berner Street which was published in
Ripper Notes
in 2007.

According to his work, the entrance onto Berner Street was 9’ 2” wide. Although there were wooden doors at the time of the murder, by the time the famous image of Berner Street was taken on 7 April 1909 (shortly before demolition) they had been replaced by metal gates. The gates visible in the famous Berner Street photograph of 1909 image seem to be a perfect match for the gates shown in 1900. Although the lower diagonal strut on the right gate appears to run in a different direction to the gate in the 1909 photograph, the later image actually shows the left gate. Likewise, the rounded stone at the entrance – designed to prevent carriages hitting the wall as they came into the yard – is evident. In front of the two small children standing in the middle of the yard there is a squat metal stopper, maybe about 6’ long. This would have been set in the ground to prevent the gates from swinging open outwards.

Detail of the Dutfield’s Yard gates, 7 April 1909

Inside Dutfield’s Yard from
The Weekly Dispatch,
7 October 1888
(Courtesy Robert Clack)

Dutfield’s Yard from
Famous Crimes Past & Present,
1903
(Courtesy Thomas Schachner)

Dutfield’s Yard from
The Pictorial World,
6 October 1888
(Courtesy Robert Clack)

Down the yard on the left is a wall-mounted lamp, matching contemporary descriptions. Just before it, a thin shaft of light is visible, breaking the shadow cast by 42 Berner Street. This was a known gap between the main building and those behind it, as is recorded in all descriptions and plans. Beyond that, the alley widens and there can clearly be seen a row of smaller buildings with at least one chimney on show beyond. This is a set of three cottages, converted from one older building, just after a lavatory at the back of 42 Berner Street.

Just beyond the smiling man standing at the end of the gateway on the right, we see a rough gutter. Some stones run up against the wall and a pair of setts are matched running down towards the steps beyond. This spot – where no one is standing, for an obvious reason – is where Elizabeth Stride was killed. At the end of the gutter is a grille set into the lower wall of 40 Berner Street. This gave light and ventilation to the basement room and is clearly seen in all illustrations from the period. Straight after this is the door into the club building. What appears to be a partition two-thirds of the way up is actually where an overhead fanlight was situated, again known from all the descriptions from the time. Beyond this is a set of four windows of irregular height. As mentioned, these are sometimes incorrectly illustrated as doorways (such as in the famous Harold Furniss illustration from
Famous Crimes Past & Present
, published in 1903) and the chances are that this was an assumption made from an illustration published in
The Pictorial World
of 6 October 1888 where Louis Diemschutz, who is historically credited with discovery of the body, is covering the bottom of the windows beyond. In fact, this earlier illustration clearly shows the windows along the side of the building matching almost exactly the windows evident in the 1900 photograph.

At the back of the yard, we see a taller building to the left and a single-storey structure to its right, clearly leading out of shot and indicating that the yard turns to its right beyond the club building, something that is definitely known to have been the case at Dutfield’s Yard. These two buildings are instantly recognisable from any illustration of the yard. This taller building originally housed Walter Hindley & Co, sack manufacturers, and it is presumed that the smaller building (at some stage a forge) housed Arthur Dutfield, the wheelwright who had given the yard its name (the cartwheel on the 1909 image relates to this business). There appears to be a small gap between the tiles on the left of this lower building and the side of the structure. Beyond this, not visible on the image, were stables.

There is some confusion as to the roles played by these buildings in contemporary descriptions. Although the stables are not in dispute, Jake Luukanen discovered that the Goad’s maps had some discrepancies when it came to naming the industries undertaken. They mark the taller building as a cabinet manufactory (and this would certainly seem to fit with the aprons worn by the men standing in its doorway) and the single-storey building as being the sack business (or, in one version, the forge). Jake has concluded that the sacking company probably moved into the lower building when Dutfield relocated to Upper Smithfield.

Fairclough Street, with the warehouse roof highlighted, 7 April 1909
(Courtesy Robert Clack)

Comparison of the warehouse roof from the 1909 and 1900 photographs

On the 1894 Ordnance Survey map, the staircase is indeed placed on the right of the building, as it is shown in some illustrations but not on the Goad’s map or the 1900 photograph. It is, of course, perfectly possible that the stairs were not firmly fixed and could be moved at will.