An Evening with Jack the Ripper, The Bull

There are plenty of strange ways to spend a Wednesday evening in mid-September, no doubt about that. If you happened to be at The Bull in Wanstead last night, you would have found yourself spending ‘an Evening with Jack the Ripper’. Amongst a sold-out audience, I was immersed in the fog and fear of the Victorian era, all thanks to the utterly mesmerising Steve Morgan’s latest live event which promises to take attendees on ‘a Journey into London’s Dark Heart’, recounting the facts surrounding the ongoing mystery of the serial killer Jack the Ripper. Over the course of this chilling evening, Steve didn’t just retell the infamous Ripper tale, he vividly resurrected it. From the very start, he plunged us into the dark heart of the East End, where cobbled streets, shadowy alleyways, and centuries-old buildings still seem to hum with the echoes of a grisly past. On a grim drizzly night like this? Well, let’s just say it made for one very Weird Wednesday.

Jack the Ripper stories continue to grip the East End, and beyond, for a reason. These tales, riddled with unanswered questions and haunting speculation, have come to characterise the darker side of London’s history. Anyone who’s wandered through Whitechapel, stumbled upon a crumbling building from the 1800s, or caught sight of an overgrown graveyard knows: this city wears its past on its sleeve, and aome parts of that past, like Jack’s, are impossible to forget.

Wanstead audiences love it for its deep-rooted connection to the East End and its dark, local history. A highlight for many was discovering that so many of the locations from the Ripper case still exist. The Frying Pan Pub, for instance, where one victim was last seen alive, is now apparently a noodle bar. That eerie overlap between past and present is part of what makes this story endlessly fascinating to locals and visitors alike.

While true crime shows and serial killer podcasts continue to dominate the cultural landscape, Steve’s live show stood out, selling out its first two evenings. So what keeps this centuries-old story fresh in the face of ever-shifting horror trends? Steve might have the answer. He doesn’t retell the tale with a fixed agenda (he doesn’t call himself a ‘Ripperologist’). Instead, he describes himself as a ‘student of the crimes’, who is open to theories both new and old. Of which, there are a significant number (and growing). 'If I listed them all’, he quipped, ‘we’d be here until December 2027’.

Steve’s performance very much reflects the pace and style of the social media and podcast generation: cliffhangers, rhetorical flourishes, and a knack for building suspense. It’s storytelling for the TikTok era, with enough history and horror to keep even the most jaded true crime fan hooked. His passion is infectious. Kicking off the evening with a content warning, this is not a tale for the faint-hearted, he then launched into a compelling, theatrical talk that felt like a seated version of his legendary walking tours. With the aid of a well-paced slideshow, and a gift for painting scenes with words, Steve transported us through the fog-filled streets of Victorian London. Think history lesson - but darker, livelier, and way more fun.

You might wonder whether, in this age of hyper-stimulating horror content, Steve has had to dial up the gore or drama to stay relevant. Maybe he has. However, it doesn’t feel gratuitous, it feels purposeful. Ultimately, Jack the Ripper isn’t just a story. It’s a mirror reflecting the fears, prejudices, and brutal realities of Victorian society. In Steve’s hands, it becomes an ongoing social commentary. He highlights, for instance, how the victims were long seen only as ‘accessories’ to the crimes, labelled as prostitutes or unfortunates, dismissed by their own society and, for many years, by history itself. Steve pushes back against that, humanising the women with care and depth. They were, as he points out, ‘wives, mothers, daughters’ deserving of more than just a line in a murder file.

What also keeps this case alive in the public imagination is its unsolved nature. Jack the Ripper was the first ‘media-age' killer. We have [one] photograph, press coverage, and even the killer’s own disturbing letters to newspapers. But no closure. No official identity. That open-endedness allows theories to thrive, from the plausible to the wildly imaginative. As long as there’s no definitive answer, the door stays open for reexamination and reinvention.

Ultimately, the show isn’t just about a killer: it’s about a time, a place, and a society caught in transition. It explores the ways fear, class, gender, and xenophobia influenced the story then and continues to shape its legacy now.

If you're into true crime, history, or just looking for something a bit different to do on a weekday evening, this is well worth your time. Who knows? You might just leave seeing your corner of London a little differently. One thing’s for certain: you’ll leave wanting more, and maybe feel a little less excited about walking home alone.