In my experience, you can only make sense of a historical crime if you walk the streets where it happened. Obviously this isn’t always possible, but when it is, it can offer a completely new perspective on past events. After researching the Ratcliffe Highway murders, I spent the afternoon walking round Wapping and, although most of the buildings have now been lost, it gave me a real insight into the crimes that took place there over two hundred years ago.
Ratcliffe Highway is a major thoroughfare with Wapping to the south and Shadwell to the north. In 1811, it was called St George’s Street, after the parish it passes through. More recently it was renamed The Highway. Walking around the area helped me understand how the three local police forces came to be involved in the investigation into the murders of the Marrs and the Williamsons, and how they all worked independently from each other. It was also interesting to see the distances between the key locations that featured in the homicides, as well as visiting the church where the victims were buried. I began my walk in Wapping High Street.
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