Victorians

As usual, so many things to tell you about and so little time to do it in. Today marks off my quest, however, to get (somewhat) caught up on my travels before heading off to Spain this weekend. Sorry for the lack of original pictures on this post, but not many were available from the respective events!

Without further ado, this week on Rachel's Behind the Times Blog, we explore a new time period of British history and culture: the Victorian age! First, Brian & I headed on what was my second official Arcadia trip of the term: the Jack the Ripper walk through the East End. Fittingly, this took place the night before Halloween.

....And I just gave away how far behind I am on this blog.

Our tour started (albeit late, gotta love Arcadia) from the London Bridge Tube stop and we were lead around by a somewhat portly older British man by the name of Tommy. How perfect. Our tour lasted about 90 minutes around what used to be the low-class, dodgy area of the city which has now grown more fashionable (and decidedly less sketchy), especially with the arrival of the 2012 Olympic Stadium on the East End.

However, back in Victorian times, this was the area of London with the poor, the immigrants, and some overcrowded combination of the two. This area of town is especially a favorite of nineteenth century British revolutionary novels (Mary Barton by Elizabeth Haskell, among others), so it was really cool to be able to explore an entirely new area of London, especially one that has so much literary history. Book nerd, for the win!

The tour was definitely creepy in some parts–thanks Brian for protecting me from the serial killers—but all in all it would probably be scarier if the East End didn't now include a vast array of modern luxuries, i.e. Sushi restaurants. In our endeavors to hear about Jack the Ripper, though, we did meander through a few old, dark alleyways, witnessing the locations of 3 out of the 5 murders, including one in a historic Victorian square and another at the gated entrance to a marketplace. Talk about creepy.


For those less up to date on this historic murderer, Jack the Ripper killed a total of five prostitutes in Victorian times in a horrific manner, usually including organs splayed and throats cut. He even supposedly sent half a kidney of one of the victims to Scotland yard (you don't want to know what happened to the other half). No one know who committed the murders to this day, but our guide did offer us this conspiracy theory involving the royal family, the accession to the throne, and some anti-Catholicism. Who knows what's accurate, but Tommy sure believed that the government was hiding information that could have changed Elizabeth II's crown. Cue the intense music here.

Who knows if these theories have any merit. Nonetheless, having watched enough 48 Hours Mystery episodes at home (yes, I have a problem), I can't imagine the feeling of the East End-ers knowing they were living with a monster like Jack the Ripper in their neighborhood of Whitechapel.

Moving on to more cheery matters (or, not at all cheery matters if you've seen this play), the next day Bria and I had front row tickets to see my all time favorite play by my all time favorite playwright, Hedda Gabbler by Ibsen, at the Old Vic theatre. I must say it was pretty incredible to have front row center seats in one of London's most famous theaters: the Old Vic has served home to Ian McKellan, Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, and Judi Dench, and is now run by Kevin Spacey. Talk about legends.


Sheridan Smith was in the lead role—one called by many as the female Hamlet, it's that demanding—previously critically acclaimed in her role as Elle Woods in the West End's production of the musical Legally Blonde. As a trapped, frustrated Victorian wife, the two roles couldn't be more different.

I must say, Smith's performance was better than I could have imagined. Even though it was my first time seeing a live production of Hedda, every move and expression Sheridan made was perfectly in line with her complicated love-to-hate character.

The end was particularly moving. Most of the audience had never seen the play (look up a summary if you don't mind ruining the ending for yourself) and therefore were laughing at Professor Tesman's antics before the play came to a close. Even for someone like myself that knew what was coming, the ending was so much more real and shocking than reading lines out of a printed book could ever be. I may even have shed some tears at Hedda's most intense scenes, it was that good.


Seeing Hedda Gabler was definitely one of my favorite experiences thus far. What a moving, incredible production. I couldn't have been more lucky that my favorite play was on stage at one of the world's most famous theaters while I'm here in London. Ultimately, though, I must say after serial killers and horribly constrained women, I'm pretty happy to be living in the 21st century.