Jack the Ripper and Constance

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Today I went on a walking tour in the East End of London which is in much more poverty than the area I live in which is Chelsea which is the 'poshest' place of London. I got off on the Liverpool Street Station which has a bit of history itself. During the second World War Nicholas Winton organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia to the UK and there were families awaiting at that station to take those children to their homes. He wasn't recognized for his bravery though until 1998 by the Czech president and was knighted in 2002 he was knighted. Other memorable places we stopped at was the Spitafields Markets and how its become more modern because it's covered where before it used to be home with plenty of street vendors and now has shops inside the buildings. We also learned how this side of London has always been a place of foreign immigrants from the Huguenots, to the Irish, then Jews and now the Bangladeshis. Our tour guide described the buildings often as Jewish ghettos because the living conditions were so poor. It was an area of fishing business and transports, crime, poverty, and disease. The buildings that people lived in were so close together and there were barely any alleys or spaces between the buildings. There were also tons and tons of orphans in the area and they were just living in the streets. The buildings people lived in couldn't really be considered buildings but more like hovels or huts. If there was a small patch of land or a garden a landowner would immediately put a building on it in order to make some sort of profit. The highly paid job in that are used to be prostitution and then theft. Most likely if your father was a thief then you would become one as well. Another memorable piece of information given on the tour is that the East End was the location the Jack the Ripper who killed numerous women who were prostitutes and alcoholics in 1888. Brick lane is a famous area for the center of immigration and there used to be many more Jewish influences that have now disappeared as the years wear on and give way to the Bangladeshis. Of course today the East End is no where near the poverty state that it was in. The buildings aren't as close, although there are areas where you can see the narrow pathways, although you won't need to crawl through other buildings or basements to reach your destination.

Later I saw a play called Constance at the King's Head Theatre. It was a little difficult to find because the theatre was in the back of a pub and you had to walk to it in order to get to the theatre. The actors and stage were very close to each other and was another intimate setting. The play was by Oscar Wilde and was about a faithful wife to a very unfaithful husband. The plot of the play was very good but I'm not so sure how I feel about the acting of the wife Constance. I think she relied a lot on her looks to make her seem innocent but her acting wasn't really there to support that feeling. One thing that I did enjoy was the character and sweet relief of a yorkie puppy that was really cute. Overall the play was good as a lot of the actors. My usual day off turned out to be a pretty busy one but was another adventure ending in an engaging play.

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