Mitre Square

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Mitre Square is a small square in the City of London. It measures about 77 feet by 80 feet and is connected via three passages with Mitre Street to the SW, to Creechurch Place to the NW and, via St James's Passage (formerly Church Passage), to Duke's Place to the NE. The square occupies the site of the cloister of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate which was demolished under Henry VIII at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.[1]. The south corner of the square was the site of the murder of Catherine Eddowes by "Jack the Ripper". Her mutilated body was found there at 1.45 in the morning of the 30th September 1888. This was the westernmost of the Whitechapel Murders and the only one located within the City.[2]

Eddowe's murder on the site of the old monastery is ascribed to an ancient curse in a contemporary penny dreadful entitled The Curse Upon Mitre Square A.D. 1530-1888 by J.F. Brewer.[3]


Mitre Square, viewed from near the site of the Eddowes murder.

Mitre Square.

'Ripper's Corner' in Mitre Square, scene of Eddowe's murder

[edit] References

  1. ^ A.G. Robertson (1968) Tudor London: 47-50
  2. ^ Stewart Evans and Donald Rumbelow (2006) Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates: 114-40
  3. ^ Donald Rumbelow (2004) The Complete Jack the Ripper: 284-5