James Brown, a resident of Fairclough Street, went out to get some supper a little before a quarter-to-one, on the morning of Sunday, 30th September 1888. As he made his way along Fairclough Street, he passed a man and woman standing by a wall. When taken to see the body of Elizabeth Stride at the mortuary, he identified her as the woman he had seen, and, in consequence, he appeared as a witness on the fourth day of the inquest into her death. The Scotsman published an account of his testimony in its edition of Saturday, 6th October 1888:-

I live on Fairclough Street. I am a dock labourer. I have seen the body at the mortuary. I do not know the woman. I saw her on Sunday morning about a quarter before one o'clock. I was going from my own house to get some supper at a chandler's shop at the corner of Berner Street and Fairclough Street. I was in the shop for three or four minutes and then went back home. On my way, I saw a man and woman standing against the wall by the Board School in Fairclough Street. I heard the woman say, "No, not tonight, some other night."; That made me turn around, and I looked at them. I saw enough then to enable me to say that I am almost certain the deceased was that woman. I did not notice any flowers in her dress. The man was standing with his arm leaning against the wall. The woman was standing with her back against the wall facing me.

The Coroner:- "Did you notice the man?"

Well, I noticed that he had a long coat on, which reached very nearly down to his heels. It appeared to be an overcoat. I could not say what kind of hat or cap he had on. They were in a rather dark place. He was wearing a dark coat. I saw nothing light in colour about either of them. He was leaning over her. It was not raining at the time.

I went on and indoors.

When I had nearly finished my supper, I heard screams of "police" and "murder." There had been an interval of about a quarter of an hour between my getting home and these screams. When I came in at twelve o'clock I did not think it Was raining.

The Coroner:- "Did you notice the height of the man?"

I should think he was about the same height as myself - 5 feet 7 inches. He was of average build.

Neither of them seemed the worst for drinking. The speech of the woman was as if she were sober. I did not notice any foreign accent about the woman's remark.

When I heard the screams of "murder" and "police" I went up to the window and looked out, but I did not see whence they proceeded. They ceased when I got to the window.

The cries were those of moving persons going in the direction of Grove Street. Shortly afterwards, I saw a policeman standing at the corner of Christian Street."

At the height of the Ripper scare, on the morning of 10th October 1888, Henrietta Barnett, the wife of the Reverend Barnet of St Jude's Church Commercial Street forwarded a petition signed by four thousand "Women of Whitechapel" to Queen Victoria begging her to prevail upon "your servants in authority" to close down the Common Lodging Houses.

The petition was passed to the Home Office which asked the police to provide information on East End prostitution, brothels and the Common Lodging Houses.

Based on the observations of the H division constables, whose beats took in the district to the west and east of Commercial Street, the police set the number of Common Lodging Houses at 233, the number of residents at 8,530 and the number of brothels at 62.

The police reply also stated that "we have no means of ascertaining what women are prostitutes and who are not, but there is an impression that there are about 1200 prostitutes, mostly of a very low condition.

It was an intense subject of debate throughout the Jack the Ripper investigation whether or not a reward should...