The Ripper of Waterloo Road by Jan Bondeson

Author:Jan Bondeson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750981866
Publisher: The History Press

After Eliza Grimwood’s effects had been sold at auction by her covetous brothers, it must have been very difficult for Hubbard to find a tenant for the house in Wellington Terrace, since every Londoner knew that a particularly gruesome murder had been committed there. Rumours soon spread that the empty house was haunted by Eliza Grimwood’s restless spirit. Hubbard stayed at his mother’s house, and did not dare to move back to Wellington Terrace, although he still had the let for the house. In September 1838, a newspaper wrote:

Notwithstanding the length of time which has elapsed since the murder of Eliza Grimwood, the house which she occupied in the Waterloo-road has remained untenanted ever since Hubbard quitted it. In order to facilitate the letting of it, the landlord has reduced the rent considerably, but all to no purpose. Numerous have been the applications from individuals of both sexes to look over the house, upon the pretence of taking it, should it suit their convenience, but it has afterwards been apparent, with no other object than that of gratifying an idle curiosity. From present appearances no one is likely very soon to become the inmate of this dwelling, so notorious is it in the annals of crime, while the landlord has the mortification of knowing that he is not only pestered by inquisitive observers, but is sure to be a very great pecuniary sufferer by its inoccupancy.23

The gloomy prediction of this newspaper journalist would prove to be nothing but the truth.

The haunted murder house at No. 12 Wellington Terrace stood empty throughout 1839, 1840, 1841 and 1842, but the Post Office directory for 1843 shows that it had finally got a tenant, the German wine merchant Adolphus Feistel, who may well have been a foreign immigrant who could not understand what all the fuss was about this notorious murder house. In 1844, the various ‘Terraces’ in Waterloo Road were incorporated in the main road, and the houses renumbered: Mr Clayton’s shop at No. 11 Wellington Terrace became No. 191 Waterloo Road, the murder house at No. 12 Wellington Terrace No. 192, and the Feathers tavern at No. 25 Wellington Terrace No. 205 Waterloo Road. The old numbering also remained, however, and the phrase ‘Wellington Terrace, Waterloo Road’ remained in use well into the 1860s.

Adolphus Feistel lived in the murder house until 1851, along with his wife who was a foreign toy dealer; the next tenant was the violin maker William Ebsworth Hill, who would remain in the house until 1868. In 1864, a journalist wrote, in an article on cheap dinners and where to find them, ‘If the gastronomic student will cross Waterloo-bridge, will walk down that combination of dubious tenancy and faded respectability known as the Waterloo-road, will pass the half-forgotten site of Eliza Grimwood’s murder, will proceed under the railway bridge, and continue his pilgrimage almost due south …’24

In 1865, the houses in Waterloo Road were again renumbered, from the centre of London towards the periphery, those on the eastern side of the road receiving uneven numbers: the Feathers tavern became No.

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