Jack the Ripper Tour. (walks of london)

Many Jack the Ripper Tours advertise that there is no need to book and tell you that you can just turn up on the tour.

Indeed some even boast that there's no red tape with their walks, you just arrive at the meeting point and off you go. Whilst this sounds wonderfully bohemian, and delightfully free-spirited, the reality is anything but.

What would your reaction be if you arrived at the meeting point to find a group of 200 to 300 people preparing to be taken on the Jack the Ripper tour with JUST ONE GUIDE? Would you in all honesty relish the prospect of being herded around the East End of London in such a huge group, with every person on the tour struggling to hear and see? How free-spirited and bohemian would that be?

Unfortunately, since the Jack the Ripper Walk is one of the most popular tours in London this is the situation that faces many people who pitch up at a pre- designated meeting point. They are expecting to enjoy a slightly macabre,even chilling evening on a Jack the Ripper tour, but instead find themselves crammed into a huge unwieldy herd that has to keep to wide, open, and modern streets, because the 200 to 300 participants cannot fit into the narrower and darker alleyways where the true ambience of Victorian London is to be found.

The problem is that when a company advertises "No Need to Book Just Turn Up," that company has no way of knowing how many people are going to take them at their word and, well, "just turn up".

When you consider that several of the companies who offer Jack the Ripper Walks undertake slick, saturation advertising campaigns, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that, without booking controls, you are going to get huge numbers of people who "just turn up."

Many of those people are horrified when they see the size of the group they're expected to join. But since they've travelled to the tour and it's too late to make alternative arrangements, what else can they do?

Well they could do what Tom from Madison did. On June 17th 2005 Tom "just turned up" up on one of the huge walking tours which, by their standards, consisted of a realtively small group of around 100 people. This is what he posted on the Virtual Tourist website about his impression and reaction:

"I tried doing in[sic] on a friday night, June 17th i think. About 100 people showed up. There was some guy holding up a book surrounded by hordes of people, couldn't hear a thing. I'm sure they do something to compensate for the crowd and hearing him, but not sure what. I passed and went out for a pint..."

Tom found he "couldn't hear a thing" with only 100 peope on the tour, so what hope would he have had of hearing anything on those frequent occasions when the number of participants reached 200 or even 300 people? Be honest. How would you have felt?

There are several postings on similar websites from other disgruntled walkers who, like Tom, 'just turned up,' and found themselves in exactly the same dilemma.

If they are fortunate enough to live in London they can, of course, find a more responsible and customer friendly Jack the Ripper Walk that insists on booking in advance so that the number of participants can be limited to a sensible and manageable number.

But if they are on vacation, and have set aside a specific night to take the Jack the Ripper Tour, then they have no choice but to either give up on taking the tour - and in the process waste a valuable night of their holiday - or else they can just grin and bear it, hand over their money and then be herded around in a group of 200 to 300 'free-spirited tourists.'

No doubt everyone of the participants is by this time thrilled to have avoided the red tape that booking their place would have entailed, as they are hurried through the streets of London's East End, straining to hear their guides commentary, and breathlessly trying to keep up with the pace that getting 200 - 300 people around in two hours entails.

There is in fact an alternative. One that would require Tom to ignore all the hype and propoganda that is put out by the operators of these mega-tours, and believe the unbiased and balanced views of people who have actually benefited from that alternative.

Had Tom booked for his Jack the Ripper Tour in advance with a reputable walking tour company, then that company could (and should) have limited the number of participants to a far more manageable number, and he would have turned up to enjoy a far more participant friendly Jack the Ripper Walk.

The result would have been that he actually did the Jack the Ripper Tour as intended. He could then have enjoyed his pint in one of the East End's historic pubs at the end of a rewarding and entertaining Jack the Ripper Tour, not instead of it.

Despite all the hype that you hear and read about "no need to book" "no red tape", a booking system is a sensible and professional way of doing business.

On our Jack the Ripper tour we limit the number of participants to just 36 people, and when our participants watch the huge groups of 100, 200 or even 300 plus people file past us, often taking five to ten minutes to assemble around their guide, they are truly relieved that they did the sensible thing and booked their Jack the Ripper walk in advance.

So don't join the herd and take the risk of being one of the people who ends up stuck at the back, unable to see or hear the guide. Join the company that is pioneering sensible and professional Jack the Ripper Tours, by asking people to book in advance.

It's better for your guide, it's better for you, and it's certainly better for the local residents with whom the huge and unwieldy Jack the Ripper Walks have become extremely unpopular in recent years.