Mitre Square is a small

square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

located in

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. The gate gave its name to ''Aldgate High Street'', the first stretch of the A11 road, that takes that name as it passes through the ancient, extramural Portsoken ...

inside the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. It measures about by and is connected via three passages with Mitre Street to the south west, to Creechurch Place to the north west and, via St James's Passage (formerly Church Passage), to Duke's Place to the north east.

History

The square occupies the site of the cloister of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate which was demolished under

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The south corner of the square was the site of the murder of

Catherine Eddowes Catherine Eddowes (14 April 1842 – 30 September 1888) was the fourth of the Jack the Ripper#Canonical five, canonical five victims of the notorious unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have killed and Mutila ...

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also ...

. Her mutilated body was found there at 1:44 in the morning on 30 September 1888. This was the westernmost of the

Whitechapel murders The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel District (Metropolis), Whitechapel district in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. At various points some or all of these eleven unso ...

and the only one located within the City of London. Eddowes' murder on the site of the old monastery is ascribed to an ancient curse in a contemporary

penny dreadful Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular Serial (literature), serial literature produced during the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typical ...

entitled ''The Curse Upon Mitre Square A.D. 1530–1888'' by J.F. Brewer.

One Mitre Square

A 19-storey, 79m-high office development is proposed for the square, known as One Mitre Square.Skyscrapernews.com
Mitre Square

Image gallery

File:Mitre Square Corner.jpg, 1938 photograph of Mitre Square. The body of Catherine Eddowes was discovered close to the fence seen at the centre of this image on 30 September 1888 File:Rippers-corner.jpg, 'Ripper's Corner' in Mitre Square, scene of Eddowes' murder. File:Whitechapel Spitalfields 7 murders.JPG, The Whitechapel murders – Mitre Square is the red dot to the bottom left corner. File:Mitre-Square.jpg, Mitre Square, viewed from near the site of the Eddowes murder. File:Mitre-Square-2.jpg, Mitre Square, 2006.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitre Square Jack the Ripper Squares in the City of London