Welcome to The Ten Bells, the pub that’s practically a co-star in the Jack the Ripper saga. If walls could talk, these ones would have a pretty gruesome—and slightly drunk—story to tell. The pub has been here since the 1750s, but it hit the big time in 1888, when the Ripper’s victims were known to drink at this very spot. Can you imagine? Sitting where a murderer’s target once sat, nursing a pint before walking into history?
The pub wasn’t just a random backdrop, either. Two of the canonical five victims—Annie Chapman and Mary Jane Kelly—were regulars here. Some say Kelly even worked the streets near Spitalfields Market and would pop in for a quick gin. It’s a strange kind of celebrity: being known for where you last had a drink before being brutally murdered. Talk about a bad night out.
A Name That’s More Than a Jingle
The name “Ten Bells” originally came from a pub sign showing ten actual bells—a common motif for pubs near churches. But the irony is too thick to ignore: the pub sits on the border of Christ Church Spitalfields, whose bells rang out over the poverty-stricken streets. So you’ve got church bells on one side, and on the other, a pub where women fled to escape a killer. Nice timing, history.
In the 1990s, after a brief name-change to “The Jack the Ripper” (because of course someone tried that), locals pushed to restore the original name. The pub went back to The Ten Bells in 2005, and thank goodness. A place like this doesn’t need a murderer’s name on the sign—it already has the vibe dripping from the ceiling tiles.
