THE LONDON DUNGEON - Jack The Ripper section, 1998

[jack2breeze]

thanks for sharing.

[ClareSloanePresenter]

I was at Pork Park as we called it in 1998! Again one of the best jobs. Loved it. And Andy I know from MOF! But I had no idea he had done the dungeons! Have you been to The London Bridge Experience? I hear they are in competition. I often wonder how many of the old staff may still be involved. Not actors but everyone else. Wonder if they never let people go back. Saw what you said about that and doesn't make sense. Sorry I'm answering all your comments in one!

[ClareSloanePresenter]

@GuildfordGhost It was really fun. Part of me wants to go see what it's like now but I would probably want to jump in and get involved! Do they still have a thing where everyone gets to do all roles or are they specific? I have seen that they do evenings now where characters host dinners. I saw your comment about the fb group isn't that odd? I didn't even know there was one.

[ClareSloanePresenter]

There so much. Not for certain poor elements, ahem, but for the passion I had when I was there. Even now I get shivers walking past there. I dreamt of the place two nights ago and ever since have been reminiscing and looking up the changes online. It still to this day is one of the best performing jobs I have done. And some may find that bizarre but it is. Did you also work at Thorpe or have I imagined that? I did as well! Uncanny! :)

[GuildfordGhost]

@ClareSloanePresenter We didn't have any chance of being a speaking head - that dates from after my time! I'd've loved that, though! I can absolutely identify with you having dreams about working back there and missing it. I still do too (but as it was, not what it is now). Yes, I was an actor at Thorpe Park too (1993).

[ClareSloanePresenter]

We must have done. And re the boat ride i loved doing that! And also wasn't keen on admissions! But sometimes entertaining a huge group could be amusing! Did you have the kind of improv section where you could hide with a head mic on and take the mickey out of people as they are approaching the "jailer" area? Loved that! Just seeing people looking at severed heads thinking they are speaking to them!!:) I don't know what it is or how to describe it but I go through times where I want to be back

[ClareSloanePresenter]

Love a day back there for the fun that was meant to say!!

[GuildfordGhost]

@ClareSloanePresenter You and I must've - for some part - worked with the same people. I echo every one of your sentiments. The best bit of all was walking the hidden (and confusing) route into the boat ride so you could jump out at (and into) passing boats - which the bosses put a stop to very quickly as it was (obviously) dangerous. Worst bit? Being around the queue outside or at admissions. Hated that with a passion, particularly the admissions section.

[ClareSloanePresenter]

Hey GuildfordGhost, I worked there the year after you and I too absolutely loved it! It has to be one of the best performing jobs because the whole place fascinated me. I'm sad to hear that the Jack section has been made smaller for a ride! Sometimes I want to go back just to see but the changes would prob ruin it for me. I also loved the hangman section as I always made dirty jokes in that bit lol! And the French revolution where we threw water over people as blood! Oh how I would live a day

[MrLukecawley]

i remember coming here when i was i year 6 and it make me shit myself :)

[UKeXtremeMedia]

Jack the ripper sounds like a top bloke.

[Animalcrossing95]

XD If you please allow me through, i have syphilis XD!!

[scotsman125]

1 person was killed by Jack.

[GuildfordGhost]

@scotsman125 OK, and who was that - and which money-making book told you so?

[scotsman125]

@GuildfordGhost. It's Jack The Ripper!

[pokejom]

the jack the ripper bit was really scary

[fameandjoy]

The entire section in this video has been removed for Vengeance and now is merely three rooms: One tiny street with the corpse of Mary Ann Nicholls, the second room a bedsit with the body of [I forgot her name but dear GOD what a sight] and the third being a tiny pub.

It's an incredible shame because I found the Ripper section well done when I first visited back in July last year and was one of the best done in the Dungeon... except for that fireball of course.

[GuildfordGhost]

@fameandjoy I should seek out video of the layout these days. It sounds awful. A rare case of a tourist attraction that was much better years ago.

[fameandjoy]

@GuildfordGhost I would have to agree as the London Dungeon certainly looked far superior in the 1990s. Vengeance is a kick in the teeth for what is meant to be an educational yet entertaining look into history because it's drastically cut down a real topic studied at schools.

[crazyhorse209]

@fameandjoy i travelled to london in 1996, the first night in a hotel an they had a JTR documentry on , the next day we went to the Dungeons, JTR experience was excellent, at the end suone dressed in a tophat an cape jumped out to scare the audeince.

[TheGodOfTheDucks]

@fameandjoy You're thinking of Mary Kelly in the bedsit

[BecksySmexy1993]

Despite all our morbid fascination with Jack the Ripper, we can't forget that those poor women were brutally murdered and is not something that should be trivialised. If it happened today people would be much more sympathetic. I realise it was such a long time ago, but humans were the same back then as they are now, despite it being such a grim time. They felt the same emotions as we do now and those women would have no doubt been terrified.

[GuildfordGhost]

@BecksySmexy1993 I do agree with you in most respects, except for one generalisation. People were NOT exactly the same then as they are now. Social mores, opinions, prejudices and expectations were different in Victorian society, and different again within the realms of poverty to those of privilege. However, I am friends with one of the Ripper victims' descendants and have met others. You are absolutely right that they need to be remembered as people, not as nameless pawns and photographs.

[BecksySmexy1993]

@GuildfordGhost Totally see where your coming from, I just meant that as humans of flesh and blood and feeling pain, we are the same as we have always been. But yeah, you're completely right that social moral and stigma was different back then, so I can understand how it may have been perceived at the time :D

[Kimzizcool]

how come when i went to the london dundgens there wasent pictures of the bodies hacked and pitcures of the women?

[GuildfordGhost]

@Kimzizcool No idea. They're recently added some stupid stuff to the place - I don't know if they're removed this section but I'd be amazed if so, as it's deemed to be one of the main attractions. Otherwise, you might've had a lazy guide who just walked you past it because they couldn't be bothered to do their job.

[Kimzizcool]

@GuildfordGhost ahha, thanks don't see why they should be hired then?

[GuildfordGhost]

@Kimzizcool Well, it was mostly a flippant comment. When I worked there there WAS someone who just walked people through without doing his job in the Ripper section, and he was 'let go' shortly afterwards. Can you remember the next thing after the court, boat ride and Sweeney Todd (which was ALSO a Ripper area in my day; there were four Ripper rooms in 1998)? It should have been straight after the Todd bit (which is fiction anyway).

[Kimzizcool]

im english and i hate my accent lol!

[patsyman]

i think u guys at the dungeon do a hell of a good job! keep it up guys! always a pleasure !!!!!!

[tars1987]

you do sound hot! I agree with Daisy!

[Shadowfang3000]

I like the part afterwards at the bar, when Jack jumps in like a Tuxedo Mask cosplayer D:

[GothicLolitaDaisy]

you sound SEXY :D hmmmmmm

[GuildfordGhost]

@GothicLolitaDaisy No I don't. Stop that.

[GothicLolitaDaisy]

@GuildfordGhost i was talking about yur accent not the tour thingy lol sorry if i offended you in any way..

[GuildfordGhost]

@GothicLolitaDaisy Ha ha ha! Of COURSE I'm not offended! :o) I was just telling you that it is a fact my voice is not sexy!

[GothicLolitaDaisy]

@GuildfordGhost YOU sir are mistaken it IS SEXY ;D lol

[spursfan112]

haha! I dont think its scary...but the bit with all the lightening scared the hell outta me!! :)

[gahks]

Thanks, I did manage to find it and have appropriately commented. :)

[gahks]

The last time I went, back in 2006/7 on my third trip, they didn't have the burst of fire. I remember that quite clearly from my first visit in 2000, when I was eight (yes, eight!): it will be much missed. Also in 2002/3, on my second visit, the first Ripper room was much larger and brighter - I remember being able to see the sign for the fire exit, and talking to the actor!

[GuildfordGhost]

@gahks Little bit of inside information for you - the fire only activates if the actor presses a concealed button. If the room is full of people and some are too close, the actors don't operate it. I'd say maybe 25% of the time I worked there we'd not use the fireball (much though we enjoyed it). The original 'first' Ripper room was called 'Owen's Yard'. It's where we used to give very sketchy background info. It now houses the Sweeney Todd nonsense.

[gahks]

@GuildfordGhost Thanks for that inside info: very interesting! Did you only work the Ripper section, or did you play any other characters? And is the Sweeney Todd show not all that good? It sounded creepy and fun :/ I've been very fortunate to go back several times during my youth, I'm eighteen now and have made three trips to the Dungeon. I've not been back since 2006, and would love to return for a fourth visit, if only for nostalgia's sake! And get a bit scared in the process, of course.

[GuildfordGhost]

@gahks Actors worked in every section - we'd spend an hour in each and be given a rota each day. Most actors hated being given the Ripper (it meant actually WORKING) or the Guillotine section at the end of the day (as they'd finish their shift later than everyone else). The Sweeney Todd thing annoyed me because it's quite simple and, of course, he never existed. Seems a bit of a waste.

[gahks]

@GuildfordGhost What was the Guillotine section like? Do you have video of it? As I say, I first visited in 2000, when it was replaced by the Great Fire.

[GuildfordGhost]

@gahks Check my channel - it is under GUILLOTINE SECTION (posted some time before this one).

[michaelUNITEDKINGDOM]

@GuildfordGhost He never existed? whaa

[GuildfordGhost]

@michaelUNITEDKINGDOM Sweeney Todd never existed, no. I know, I know, a lot of people think he did but it springs from an 1840s serialisation story in the papers based on a fusion of a genuine case of a barber who cut a customer's throat during an argument and the legend of the family of Sawney Beane on the Galloway coast in the 16th century (a family of cannibals who also may never have actually existed). However, if you Google FRITZ HAARMANN you will find reality scarier than fiction.

[Dookie1995]

I would LOVE to have a job here <3

[RuthJoySmith34]

um were you an actor at the london dungeon in the summer of 2000 jack the ripper exeperince or not not just wondering

[GuildfordGhost]

@RuthJoySmith34 Hello - no, just 1998. In answer to your other question, the boat ride was certainly there when I worked there as I have film of that on here as well.

[KirstySewell1]

i went yesturday wiv my school it was really scary but interestingwhn we were in tht part we had a woman talking to us she scared me and my mate as she kinda jumped out on us

[MrStickman1997]

guildfordghost you know hex: the legend of the towers?

do you think it will be changed to a dungeon like the castle dungeon at warwick castle?

[0Amberz0]

I Went Here Too, It Freaked Me Out When The Fire Came Out o.o

[nikiLOVEcats]

I think that jack the ripper wasn't just one guy, but yes many of them.

I think it was a serial killer ''group'' who have a couple of people and they killed women together, i mean, not together lol, they are different people who use the same plan to kill.

[Powersophie1]

Good acting

[pomfan07]

do you think that whitechapel is still haunted by jack the ripper? Who do u think is the killer? Are there any ghost sightings

[GuildfordGhost]

@pomfan07 There's masses of ghost sightings to do with JTR; I've lectured to conferences on that very subject. However, I doubt if there's anything in nearly all of them. A couple of sightings (one of them audible only) are convincing. The rest are clearly nonsense. We don't know who it was and most of us involved in research really, TRULY, don't care! We will NEVER know.

[daisydoowest]

@pomfan07 if it is we need proof if u do ya live in londen find out

[fiver5vervain]

There is a theory that Jack the Ripper was actually a woman known as the mad midwife, she did have the perfect desguise though I belive such brutality was done by a man...deffinately not the Prince as he was away at some of the muders, I believe it was one of the doctors but not the Queen's suspecting him is as absured as suspecting Lewis Caroll

[GuildfordGhost]

@fiver5vervain William Stewart's mad midwife theory of 1938 was down to a lack of psychological knowledge and the assumption that only a woman could walk around the streets covered in blood without arousing suspicion though, of course, today we know this is all nonsense. There's nothing truly supporting a doctor theory if looking at evidence objectively, though many authors will try to tell you otherwise when they have a theory to sell.

[ghostviper]

It's because of this I really got in to Jack the Ripper. I need to take trip back here.

[GuildfordGhost]

@ghostviper It's changed a bit. The first section that told you about Victorian Whitechapel is now a Sweeney Todd section (who didn't even exist) and the hangman's drop is now a silly theatrical piece on the 'ghost' of JTR. The other parts are still the same, including that ridiculous list of suspects.

[TenTimesTheAction]

I used to go to London Dungeon as a Kid ALOT, i used to go every sunday.

Im surprised that you used to get paid 4.50 per hour! even though to get in it costs at least £20+ but still I'd love to work there as it's an amazing place for learning and being scared.

The thing that annoyed me there were the foreigners (no offence), they were always shoving and pushing like the world bows down to them.

But thanks for this, Brings back memories!

[GuildfordGhost]

Hello! It wouldn't be £4.50 these days (remember this was 12 years ago). I can concur that it wasn't so much the foreign visitors who were a problem, but SOME of the European students. Northern Europe were usually well behaved, but Southern European students were mostly awful. Very rowdy, boisterous, noisy and inconsiderate. If they annoyed us, we'd just cut short what we were doing - we'd always try to keep like with like so as not to spoil it for anyone else.

[BlondeBardie]

Oh...I didn't know that.

He was in a bad way.

[GuildfordGhost]

Indeed. And you know this Masonic link with Gull? He was never in the Masons. Deep and extensive research has been done into his personal papers - there's not a single document relating to, or mention of, Freemasonry. It was all made up for television (and later, in 1976, for Stephen Knight's book).  To be honest, none of the 100+ named suspects are credible; they all have faults in their candidature.

[BlondeBardie]

I think it was Dr Gull because of that Michael Caine mini-series from 1988.

The conlusion they came to in that programme made the most sense to me.

[GuildfordGhost]

Thanks for coming back and giving me your answer. The 1988 series was a work of fiction. Gull was originally implicated as part of a fake story for a BBC drama in 1973. In 1888, he was in his 70s, had suffered two strokes and was often bedbound. He could hardly move about, let alone kill and mutilate people. It's all a story.

[BlondeBardie]

I would love to go on this tour.

By the way, I think the man who was Jack The Ripper was Dr William Gull, the Queen's personal doctor.

[GuildfordGhost]

Hi - what you see here is all you have of the Ripper at the Dungeon - 10 minutes. Sir William Withey Gull is, without doubt, one of the most unlikely candidates ever put forward in well over 100 silly suspects.  Why do you think it was him?

[flickersweet]

Thank you for the vid. Have you read Patricia Cornwell's book, Portrait of a killer, Jack the Ripper? If so, what are your thoughts on her Walter Sickert" theory?

[GuildfordGhost]

Hi - it's absolute, total bunk. Most Ripper historians deem it one of the worst books and worst theories on the case ever written. Nothing in it genuinely links Sickert to the crimes and all it proves is that he probably wrote one of 700 hoax letters.

[LoomVideos]

When I was there last year the guy was talking about the "From hell" letter and he said "and it was signed Jack The Ripper!" - I didnt have the heart to put up my hand and say "It was actually signed Catch me if you can Mishter Lusk" - oh well.

[GuildfordGhost]

We were given Ripper information packs to tell the tourists and when I pointed out all the masses of ridiculous errors in it, I got shouted down. I did love working there but they really should get their act together on facts.

[vuur150]

How is it to work there?

[GuildfordGhost]

@vuur150 : It was a long time ago. In 1998 the pay was £4.50ph. Bad money even then, but it was a lot of fun - imagine getting paid to be rude to people and make them jump all day. Working conditions were poor, the bosses were horrible and half the staff were miserable sods, but the rest of the staff were a pleasure to work with. I'm still in touch with one of them. The novelty of the job never wore off.

[vuur150]

@GuildfordGhost Sounds good enough as a side-job right? Thanks for your reply, i really wanted to know that. but what do you mean with miserable sods? you mean those people that REALLY like scaring people?

[GuildfordGhost]

Quite the opposite - 'miserable sods' in that they hated the job, would skive as much as possible and put nothing into it.

[robhardy]

This video brings back happy memories of the last visit I made to the Dungeon, which was around the time this film was made!