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Old Urban Legends

Tunn11

Tunn11

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Nov 23, 2005
Messages
2,753
Location
Under the highest tree top in Kent
Thought I'd posted this before but I can't find it... apologies if I have.

Recently researching our family history I recalled a story that my great great Aunt Min used to tell me. ( I really wished she'd had a brother called Max, but not to be!)

Min said that when she was young (I gather early teens) She'd been out with her father in Whitechapel when he'd had to pop into a pub to use the toilet. He worked in a brewery and died falling down the steps in one, but let's give him the benefit of doubt. In those days children and women didn't go into pubs so young Min was left outside. While she was standing there a well dressed man approached her and ran his white gloved hand over her cheek. He looked at his glove and seeing no rouge, said : "You're a nice girl." and walked off. Min was convinced that this was Jack the Ripper.
Well the dates don't check Min was born in 1888 so this would have been around 1900 -1902 and if it happened it was probably some gent out looking for a good time girl.

So far nothing that strange but I mentioned this story to a friend of mine. He looked rather surprised and said that he'd had an elderly aunt who'd told him the same story when he was young. The only difference being that the gent had given her a sixpence when he walked off and when she looked at it in the light it was bloodstained.

Anyone else heard this story relating to Jack? I was told it probably in the late sixties and my friend around the same time. Could it have been a popular story with elderly ladies that they liked to pass on to the young 'uns. Could it have been a story from their youth dating from Edwardian times or even a story that dated from Jack's time that they liked to re tell.

Min was a nice old dear when I knew her and I don't think one to tell a story as a true story unless to believed to be true. However she must have been nearly eighty when she told it - she died in 1973 - and was a little forgetful.
 
Tunn11 said:
Thought I'd posted this before but I can't find it... apologies if I have.

Recently researching our family history I recalled a story that my great great Aunt Min used to tell me. ( I really wished she'd had a brother called Max, but not to be!)

Min said that when she was young (I gather early teens) She'd been out with her father in Whitechapel when he'd had to pop into a pub to use the toilet. He worked in a brewery and died falling down the steps in one, but let's give him the benefit of doubt. In those days children and women didn't go into pubs so young Min was left outside. While she was standing there a well dressed man approached her and ran his white gloved hand over her cheek. He looked at his glove and seeing no rouge, said : "You're a nice girl." and walked off. Min was convinced that this was Jack the Ripper.
Well the dates don't check Min was born in 1888 so this would have been around 1900 -1902 and if it happened it was probably some gent out looking for a good time girl.

So far nothing that strange but I mentioned this story to a friend of mine. He looked rather surprised and said that he'd had an elderly aunt who'd told him the same story when he was young. The only difference being that the gent had given her a sixpence when he walked off and when she looked at it in the light it was bloodstained.

Anyone else heard this story relating to Jack? I was told it probably in the late sixties and my friend around the same time. Could it have been a popular story with elderly ladies that they liked to pass on to the young 'uns. Could it have been a story from their youth dating from Edwardian times or even a story that dated from Jack's time that they liked to re tell.

Min was a nice old dear when I knew her and I don't think one to tell a story as a true story unless to believed to be true. However she must have been nearly eighty when she told it - she died in 1973 - and was a little forgetful.
Click to expand...

That's a new one on me!
Men commonly pee'd in alleys back then rather than going to the trouble of finding a pub loo. Was Daddy really popping in for a sly pint?
It also seems a little risky to leave a young teenage girl outside a Whitechapel pub alone!
 
escargot said:
That's a new one on me!
Men commonly pee'd in alleys back then rather than going to the trouble of finding a pub loo. Was Daddy really popping in for a sly pint?
It also seems a little risky to leave a young teenage girl outside a Whitechapel pub alone!
Click to expand...
A sly pint or five I think! He was, some years, later found nearly dead at the foot of the brewery steps and died soon after. The inquest was held in a pub and they gave a verdict of "death by misadventure" one of my more colourful relatives! Don't know about my friend's aunt or her family though.
 
Tunn11 said:
A sly pint or five I think! He was, some years, later found nearly dead at the foot of the brewery steps and died soon after. The inquest was held in a pub and they gave a verdict of "death by misadventure" one of my more colourful relatives! Don't know about my friend's aunt or her family though.
Click to expand...

Your family sound great!

We had terrible drunkards back in the day. A great-granny of mine once went to her mother in fear after hitting her husband on the head with a beer bottle. Great-great Granny replied 'Was it full?'
 
Tunn11 said:
A sly pint or five I think! He was, some years, later found nearly dead at the foot of the brewery steps and died soon after. The inquest was held in a pub and they gave a verdict of "death by misadventure" one of my more colourful relatives! Don't know about my friend's aunt or her family though.
Click to expand...

May be an apocyphal tale of it's own, but I knew a chap once who reckoned that coroners frequently use the abbreviation PFD in their notes.

Pissed, Fell Down.
 
I had to chuckle when I read this in the Coroner's Regulations: ' “a concern that circumstances creating a risk of other deaths will occur, or will continue to exist in the future;” .'
I believe death will exist in the future, but I guess it's not safe to bet on it. :reap::chain:
 
Can confirm the excuse of 'just taking the lad out for a walk' was still circulating circa 1960 - My Granddad used to leave me outside the long-demolished Victoria pub in Southend. OK, not Whitechapel, but not something we'd approve of now. I was approximately 5.

He wasn't a drunk, though, he just liked a pint, maybe 2, not more. Probably more important was a quick update of the 'Parish News' as it were, from the other drinkers.
 
One of the best things was being allowed to drink in the local before I was 18. The straightener was asking for a packet of Big D nuts and the barmaid pulling a bag off the bottom corner instead of a more interesting bit.
 
Analogue Boy said:
One of the best things was being allowed to drink in the local before I was 18. The straightener was asking for a packet of Big D nuts and the barmaid pulling a bag off the bottom corner instead of a more interesting bit.
Click to expand...
For those for whom this means nowt, I give you...

Unknown.jpeg
 
You'd think with a brand name like Big D they could have rustled up a major surprise for that last packet's removal.
 
GNC said:
You'd think with a brand name like Big D they could have rustled up a major surprise for that last packet's removal.
Click to expand...
Big... Double D?
 
Cochise said:
Can confirm the excuse of 'just taking the lad out for a walk' was still circulating circa 1960 - My Granddad used to leave me outside the long-demolished Victoria pub in Southend. OK, not Whitechapel, but not something we'd approve of now. I was approximately 5.

He wasn't a drunk, though, he just liked a pint, maybe 2, not more. Probably more important was a quick update of the 'Parish News' as it were, from the other drinkers.
Click to expand...
Yup

Some of my earliest memories is sitting outside pubs, waiting for the old man to appear with a bottle of coke and a packet of crisps. On match days it would always be the Oliver twist on Oliver road Leyton (now flats sadly) Or if it was warm, I was allowed to take my little fishing net and we’d go to the prince of Wales in Hackney (it backed onto the river Lea) where I’d try to catch sticklebacks in the river.

Without a doubt though, every Sunday around 2pm my Mum would shout at me to go and find my dad as dinner was nearly ready. Off I’d go on my pushbike to every pub on brick lane. I’d always find him at the southern end of brick as he’d almost finished his pub crawl by then, from north of the lane to the south – most of the time I’d find him in the Severn stars. It’s been a while since I’ve been back. How many pubs on brick lane there is now I wonder.
 
Dick Turpin said:
Without a doubt though, every Sunday around 2pm my Mum would shout at me to go and find my dad as dinner was nearly ready. Off I’d go on my pushbike to every pub on brick lane. I’d always find him at the southern end of brick as he’d almost finished his pub crawl by then, from north of the lane to the south – most of the time I’d find him in the Severn stars. It’s been a while since I’ve been back. How many pubs on brick lane there is now I wonder.
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On Brick Lane, most of them would now be Indian restaurants.
Probably the best place for a curry in London now.
 
Mythopoeika said:
On Brick Lane, most of them would now be Indian restaurants.
Probably the best place for a curry in London now.
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The locals won't eat in any of them though Myth.

When I lived in the east end, I'd always walk into the city to eat an Indian. The Spice trader on Philpot lane being my go to place.
 
Dick Turpin said:
The locals won't eat in any of them though Myth.

When I lived in the east end, I'd always walk into the city to eat an Indian. The Spice trader on Philpot lane being my go to place.
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I used to know a couple who lived in Dawlish Road in Leyton, and they both had the same attitude about the area.
Both of them no longer live in East London.
 
Dick Turpin said:
Some of my earliest memories is sitting outside pubs, waiting for the old man to appear with a bottle of coke and a packet of crisps. On match days it would always be the Oliver twist on Oliver road Leyton (now flats sadly) Or if it was warm, I was allowed to take my little fishing net and we’d go to the prince of Wales in Hackney (it backed onto the river Lea) where I’d try to catch sticklebacks in the river.
Click to expand...
One of my uncles had the British Oak on the Lea Bridge Road for a short while. It held some record for the length of the bar if memory serves me right.
 
Tempest63 said:
One of my uncles had the British Oak on the Lea Bridge Road for a short while. It held some record for the length of the bar if memory serves me right.
Click to expand...
I knew the British Oak quite well Temp. There were 3 pubs on that part of Lea Bridge road that were in spitting distance of each other. The Prince of Wales (renamed the Princess of Wales after the death of Diana) the British Oak and the pub in the middle was called the Ship aground. The Oak was quite lively back in the early to mid1990's.

Happy memories.
 
Discussion of changing demographics is not required here, unless they pertain to old urban legends in some way.

Some comments removed accordingly.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Probably the best place for a curry in London now.
Click to expand...
I would beg to differ.

Admittedly I have not eaten on Brick Lane for several years now, but it no longer has a “Jewel in the Crown” restaurant such as Sadiques where I used to entertain clients in the nineties. Sweet and Spicy closed some years ago which was a canteen style lunch spot and has never been replaced.

The reports I get from colleagues is that Brick Lane has had its day and most restaurants are quite mediocre, fighting over a diminishing trade. A lot of the Indian restaurants have closed and been taken over by alternative trades.

I still shop there though for spices etc., that I would struggle to find locally, the Taj stores being my preferred outlet.
 
Tempest63 said:
I would beg to differ.

Admittedly I have not eaten on Brick Lane for several years now, but it no longer has a “Jewel in the Crown” restaurant such as Sadiques where I used to entertain clients in the nineties. Sweet and Spicy closed some years ago which was a canteen style lunch spot and has never been replaced.

The reports I get from colleagues is that Brick Lane has had its day and most restaurants are quite mediocre, fighting over a diminishing trade. A lot of the Indian restaurants have closed and been taken over by alternative trades.

I still shop there though for spices etc., that I would struggle to find locally, the Taj stores being my preferred outlet.
Click to expand...
I think you'll find that Indian restaurants all over Britain are struggling to survive, so what you say doesn't surprise me.
 
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