Terror in the East End: The Whitechapel Real Time Twitter Account

Got an interest in social history and the way the average person lived in Victorian London, or just have a strange fascination for the macabre? Have I got a Twitter account for you! Since this year marks the 125th anniversary of the Whitechapel murders, a group of Ripperologists and The History Press have put together the Whitechapel Real Time account over at Twitter, which gives day-by-day, real-time accounts of what was going on in London at the time of the murders, just as if Twitter were reporting it.

The account also gives an idea of what life in 1888 London was like for many people, with actual quotations from notables such as Charles Walter Dickens to the most insignificant street beggar. References are also made to other events that took place at that time, such as the match girl strike of 1887 and the results of an investigation done that year on what was really in the ice lollies that were sold in local shops. Links are also included to contemporaneous advertisements, articles from newspapers, and photographs showing what London looked like at the time. This is an account that is relevant to my interests because of the research I’m doing for my own writing, but it’s also dangerous, since it’s possible to spend up to an hour in a Wikipedia tunnel trying to find more information on what they might be referring to. Either way, it’s a quick, easy way to escape the mundane hours spent at work just for a little bit!