Grim Almanac of Jack the Ripper''s London 1870-1900

DID YOU KNOW?

When the police seemed to make no progress in the hunt for Jack the Ripper it was suggested some of the East End''s best-trained boxers should be dressed in women''s clothes and walk the streets in an attempt to lure the killer into making an attack. At the time of the Ripper murders it was estimated that 80,000 prostitutes worked the streets of London. Living conditions in tenement housing were atrocious: one sanitary inspector reported finding a father, mother, three children and four pigs all inhabiting a single filthy room.

On 15 November 1892, as Dr Neill Cream dropped through the gallows trap at Newgate, he declared ''I''m Jack the... - he wasn''t.

Have you ever wondered what the London that witnessed the Jack the Ripper murders was really like? If you have, then enquire within. This almanac explores dreadful deeds, macabre deaths, strange occurrences and grim tales from the darker side of the capital''s past. Jostling for position in this cornucopia of the criminal and the curious are diverse tales of baby farmers, garotters, murderers, poisoners, prostitutes, pimps, rioters and rebels. Other tales tell of those who walked the poverty-stricken streets of ''the abyss'', trying to earn a few honest coppers by the most unusual and desperate occupations, from tater man to tosher.

This colourful cast of characters is accompanied by accounts of prisons and punishments, as well as a liberal smattering of funerals, executions, disasters and bizarre events. If it''s horrible, if it''s ghastly, if it''s strange, it''s here - and if you have the stomach for it, then read on....