Construction work is expected to start this summer on a £250m office complex on the site of Jack the Ripper’s only murder within the City of London.
Notoriously known as the Whitechapel Murders, all but one of the Victorian serial killer’s victims were found in the East End. Just before two in the morning on the last day of September, 1888, the mutilated body of Catherine Eddowes was found in the southwest corner of Mitre Square by a patrolling policeman.
Now, after more than ten years in the planning, developer Helical Bar says it is at last ready to build a 273,000sq ft office tower on the site which, for more than a century, has attracted true crime “tourists” and is part of guided Jack the Ripper walks.
For years the Mitre Square slaying has intrigued Jack the Ripper investigators and students. Not only did the murderer stray into the City, it was also the only night on which he killed twice. Less than an hour earlier the Ripper was disturbed as he was about to mutilate the body of Elizabeth Stride in Dutfield’s Yard, Whitechapel.
The original Mitre Square was a small enclosed yard connected by three passages to adjoining streets. Some buildings overlooking the square were damaged during the Blitz. What remained has now been demolished and the site cleared. “We anticipate starting the new building later this year, having identified a financial partner,” Helical said in statement.
One Mitre Square has been designed by architects Sheppard Robson. It describes the proposed project as “an impressive 19-storey high quality office building whose form responds to the tight planning constraints of the area and the adjacent urban fabric, and which contains a mix of uses including a school, offices, and residential buildings”.
Michael Slade is Helical Bar’s chief executive. “The London office development programme will provide the potential for substantial additional profit in the next few years,” he said. “Our investment portfolio meanwhile is focused on London and regional shopping centres, where rents are showing good growth. Both sectors are benefitting from increased investor interest.
“We have acquired properties for a total cost of £160m since April, 2013, and anticipate a good level of value creation from these assets in the medium to long term, but we will continue to look for other assets to grow the investment portfolio with a further £100m of firepower available to achieve this.”
In January his firm started work at 207 Old Street where three existing buildings are being remodelled to provide 286,000sq ft of office and retail space. It also received planning permission for its Kings Street, Hammersmith, joint venture development with Grainger and announced it would begin work on a £180m urban quarter project at Barts Square, on the former hospital site, in January next year.
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