Born Mary Ann Walker on August 26, 1845 in Shoe Lane off Fleet Street. She
was christened in or some years before 1851. At the time of her death the
East London Observer guessed her age at 30-35. At the inquest her father
said "she was nearly 44 years of age, but it must be owned that she
looked ten years younger."
Features
5'2" tall; brown eyes; dark complexion; brown hair turning grey; five
front teeth missing (Rumbelow); two bottom-one top front (Fido), her teeth
are slightly discoloured. She is described as having small, delicate
features with high cheekbones and grey eyes. She has a small scar on her
forehead from a childhood injury.
She is described by Emily Holland as "a very clean woman who always
seemed to keep to herself." The doctor at the post mortem remarked
on the cleanliness of her thighs. She is also an alcoholic.
History
Father: Edward Walker (Blacksmith, formerly a locksmith). He has gray hair
and beard and, as a smithy, was probably powerfully built. At the time of
Polly's death he is living at 16 Maidswood Rd., Camberwell.
Mother: Caroline.
Polly married William Nichols on January 16, 1864. She would have been about
22 years old. The marriage is performed by Charles Marshall, Vicar of Saint
Brides Parrish Church and witnessed by Seth George Havelly and Sarah Good.
William Nichols is in the employ of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.,
Whitefriars Rd. and living at Cogburg Rd. off Old Kent Road at the time of
his wife's death.
The couple have five children. Edward John, born 1866; Percy George, 1868;
Alice Esther, 1870; Eliza Sarah, 1877 and Henry Alfred born in 1879. The
oldest, 21 in 1888, is living with his grandfather (Polly's father) at the
time of her death. He had left home in 1880 according to his father, on his
own accord. The other children continued to live with Nichols.
William and Polly briefly lodged in Bouverie Street then moved in with her
father at 131 Trafalgar Street for about ten years. They spend six years,
(no dates) at No. 6 D block, Peabody Buildings, Stamford Street, Blackfriars
Rd. There they are paying a rent of 5 shillings, 6 pence per week. If
Peabody Buildings is their last address then they would have lived there from
1875-1881, with her father from 1865 to 1875.
Polly separated from Nichols for the final time in 1881. It was the last of
many separations during 24 years of marriage.
In 1882, William found out that his wife was living as a prostitute and
discontinued support payments to her. (Sugden: she is living with another
man, probably Thomas Dew). Parrish authorities tried to collect maintenance
money from him. He countered that she had deserted him leaving him with the
children. He won his case after establishing that she was living as a common
prostitute. At the time of her death, he had not seen his wife in three
years.
Polly's father spread the story that the separation had come about due to
William having an affair with the nurse who took care of Polly during her
last confinement. William does not deny that he had an affair but states
that it was not the cause of her leaving. "The woman left me four or
five times, if not six." He claims that the affair took place after
Polly left. There is obvious disharmony in the family as the eldest son
would have nothing to due with his father at his mother's funeral.
After the separation, Polly begins a sad litany of moving from workhouse to
workhouse.
4/24/82-1/18/83 -- Lambeth Workhouse
1/18/83-1/20/83 -- Lambeth Infirmary
1/20/83-3/24/83 -- Lambeth Workhouse
3/24/83-5/21/83 -- She is living with her father in
Camberwell. He testifies at the inquest into her death that she
was "a dissolute character and drunkard whom he knew would
come to a bad end." He found her not a sober person but not
in the habit of staying out late at night. Her drinking caused
friction and they argued. He claims that he had not thrown her
out but she left the next morning.
5/21/83-6/2/83 -- Lambeth Workhouse
6/2/83-10/26/87 -- She is said to have been living with
a man named Thomas Dew, a blacksmith, with a shop in York Mews,
15 York St., Walworth. In June 1886 she had attended the funeral
of her brother who had been burned to death by the explosion of a
paraffin lamp. It was remarked by the family that she was
respectably dressed.
10/25/87 -- She spends one day in St. Giles Workhouse,
Endell Street.
10/26/87-12/2/87 -- Strand Workhouse, Edmonton
12/2/87-12/19/87 -- Lambeth Workhouse
On 12/2/87 It is said that she was caught "sleeping
rough (in the open)" in Trafalgar Square. She was found to
be destitute and with no means of sustenance and was sent on to
Lambeth Workhouse.
12/19/87-12/29/87 -- Lambeth Workhouse
12/29/87-1/4/88 -- No record
1/4/88-4/16/88 -- Mitcham Workhouse, Holborn and
Holborn Infirmary.
4/16/88-5/12/88 -- Lambeth Workhouse. It is in Lambeth
Workhouse that she meets Mary Ann Monk who will eventually
identify Polly's body for the police. Monk is described as a
young woman with a "Haughty air and flushed face."
Polly has another friend in the Lambeth Workhouse, a Mrs.
Scorer. She had been separated from her husband James Scorer, an
assistant salesman in Spitalfields Market, for eleven years. He
claimed that he knew Polly by sight but was unable to identify
the body at the mortuary.
On 12 May she left Lambeth to take a position as a domestic
servant in the home of Samuel and Sarah Cowdry. This was common
practice at the time for Workhouses to find domestic employment
for female inmates.
The Cowdry's live at "Ingleside", Rose Hill Rd,
Wandsworth. Samuel (b. 1827)is the Clerk of Works in the Police
Department. Sarah is one year younger than her husband. They are
described as upright people. Both are religious and both are
teetotalers.
Polly writes her father:
"I just right to say you will be glad to know that I
am settled in my new place, and going all right up to now. My
people went out yesterday and have not returned, so I am left in
charge. It is a grand place inside, with trees and gardens back
and front. All has been newly done up. They are teetotalers and
religious so I ought to get on. They are very nice people, and I
have not too much to do. I hope you are all right and the boy has
work. So good bye for the present.
from yours truly,
Polly
Answer soon, please, and let me know how you are."
Walker replies to the letter but does not hear back.
She works for two months and then left while stealing clothing
worth three pounds, ten shillings.
8/1/88-8/2/88 -- Grays Inn Temporary Workhouse
Last Addresses
Common lodging house at 18 Thrawl Street, Spitalfields. Thrawl
Street is south of and parallel to Flower and Dean Street. There
she shares a room with four women including Emily (or Ellen)
Holland. The room is described as being surprisingly neat. The
price of the room is 4d per night.
Emily Holland is 50 years old. In October 1888 she has two
convictions in Thames Magistrate Court for being drunk and
disorderly.
On 8/24/88 Polly moves to a lodging house known as the White
House at 56 Flower and Dean Street. In this doss house men are
allowed to share a bed with a woman.
Flower and Dean Street held lodging houses in which Nichols,
Stride and Eddowes lived at one time or another. Most of these
common lodging houses catered to prostitutes. Flower and Dean is
described in 1883 as "perhaps the foulest and most dangerous
street in the whole metropolis." It and Thrawl Street are
part of the area if Spitalfields known as the "evil quarter
mile."
Thursday, August 30 through Friday, August 31, 1888.
Heavy rains have ushered out one of the coldest and wettest
summers on record. On the night of August 30, the rain was sharp
and frequent and was accompanied by peals of thunder and flashes
of lightning. the sky on that night was turned red by the
occasion of two dock fires.
11:00 PM -- Polly is seen walking down Whitechapel
Road, she is probably soliciting trade.
12:30 AM -- She is seen leaving the Frying Pan Public
House at the corner of Brick Lane and Thrawl Street. She returns
to the lodging house at 18 Thrawl Street.
1:20 or 1:40 AM -- She is told by the deputy to leave
the kitchen of the lodging house because she could not produce
her doss money. Polly, on leaving, asks him to save a bed for
her. " Never Mind!" She says, "I'll soon get my
doss money. See what a jolly bonnet I've got now." She
indicates a little black bonnet which no one had seen before.
2:30 AM -- She meets Emily Holland, who was returning
from watching the Shadwell Dry Dock fire, outside of a grocer's
shop on the corner of Whitechapel Road and Osborn Street. Polly
had come down Osborn Street. Holland describes her as "very
drunk and staggered against the wall." Holland calls
attention to the church clock striking 2:30. Polly tells Emily
that she had had her doss money three times that day and had
drunk it away. She says she will return to Flower and Dean Street
where she could share a bed with a man after one more attempt to
find trade. "I've had my doss money three times today and
spent it." She says, "It won't be long before I'm
back." The two women talk for seven or eight minutes. Polly
leaves walking east down Whitechapel Road.
At the time, the services of a destitute prostitute like Polly
Nichols could be had for 2 or 3 pence or a stale loaf of bread. 3
pence was the going rate as that was the price of a large glass
of gin.
3:15 AM -- P.C. John Thain, 96J, passes down Buck's Row
on his beat. He sees nothing unusual. At approximately the same
time Sgt. Kerby passes down Bucks Row and reports the same.
3:40 or 3:45 AM -- Polly Nichols' body is discovered in
Buck's Row by Charles Cross, a carman, on his way to work at
Pickfords in the City Road., and Robert Paul who joins him at his
request. "Come and look over here, there's a woman."
Cross calls to Paul. Cross believes she is dead. Her hands and
face are cold but the arms above the elbow and legs are still
warm. Paul believes he feels a faint heartbeat. "I think
she's breathing," he says "but it is little if she
is."
P.C. Neil is called by the two men and rushes over to the scene
of the crime. Neil, in turn, calls for Dr. Llewellyn, who resides
nearby. The two return a few minutes later (around 3:50 A.M.) and
Dr. Llewellyn pronounces life to have been extinct "but a few
minutes."
Bucks Row is ten minutes walk from Osborn Street. The only
illumination is from a single gas lamp at the far end of the
street.
Buck's Row:
Description by Leonard Matters in 1929
"...Buck's Row can not have changed much in character
since its name was altered. It is a narrow, cobbled, mean street,
having on one side the same houses-possibly tenanted by the same
people -- which stood there in 1888. They are shabby, dirty
little houses of two stories, and only a three foot pavement
separates them from the road, which is no more than twenty feet
from wall to wall.
On the opposite sides are the high walls of warehouses which
at night would shadow the dirty street in a far deeper gloom than
its own character would in broad day light suggests.
All Durward Street is not so drab and mean, for by some
accident in the planning of the locality -- if ever it was
planned -- quite two thirds of the thoroughfare is very wide and
open.
The street lies east and west along the London and Northern
Railway Line. It is approached from the west by Vallance Street,
formerly Baker's Row. On the left are fine modern tall
warehouses. I was interested to note that one of them belongs to
Messrs. Kearly and Tongue, LTD. in front of whose premises in
Mitre Square another murder was committed on September 30th. On
the left side of the street is a small wall guarding the railway
line, which lies at a depth of some twenty feet below ground
level. Two narrow bridge roads lead across the railway to
Whitechapel Road. The first was called Thomas Street in 1888, but
now is Fullbourne Street. The other is Court Street. By either of
these two lanes, no more that two hundred fifty yards long, the
busy main artery of the Whitechapel area can be reached from the
relatively secluded Buck's Row.
Going still further east, an abandoned London County Council
School building breaks the wide and open Durward Street into
narrow lanes or alleys. The left hand land retains the name of
Durward Street 'late Buck's Row', and the other is Winthrop
Street. Both are equally dirty and seemingly
disreputable..."
Soon after the murder, to avoid continued notoriety, the name
is changed from Buck's Row to Durward Street.
Polly's body is found across
from Essex Wharf (warehouse) and Brown and Eagle Wool Warehouse
and Schneiders Cap Factory in a gateway entrance to an old
stableyard between a board school (to the west) and terrace
houses (cottages) belonging to better class tradesmen. She is
almost underneath the window of Mrs. Green, a light sleeper, who
lives in the first house next to the stable gates. Her house is
called the 'New Cottage'. She is a widower with two sons and a
daughter living with her. That night, one son goes to bed at 9:00
PM, the other follows at 9:45. Mrs. Green and her daughter shared
a first floor room at the front of the house. They went to bed at
appoximately 11:00 PM. She claims she slept undisturbed by any
unusual sound until she was awakened by the police.
Opposite New Cottage lives Walter Purkiss, the manager of
Essek Wharf with his wife, children and a servant. He and his
wife went to bed at 11:00 and 11:15 respectively. Both claimed to
have been awake at various times in the night and heard nothing.
Polly Nichols' body is identified by Lambeth Workhouse inmate
Mary Ann Monk and the identification confirmed by William
Nichols.
She was wearing: (overall impression -- shabby and stained)
- Black Straw bonnet trimmed with black velvet
- Reddish brown ulster with seven large brass buttons
bearing the pattern of a woman on horseback accompanied
by a man.
- Brown linsey frock (apparently new according to Sugden.
Could this be a dress she stole from the Cowdrys?)
- White flannel chest cloth
- Black ribbed wool stockings
- Two petticoats, one gray wool, one flannel. Both
stenciled on bands "Lambeth Workhouse"
- Brown stays (short)
- Flannel drawers
- Men's elastic (spring) sided boots with the uppers cut
and steel tips on the heels
Possessions:
- Comb
- White pocket handkerchief
- Broken piece of mirror (a prized possession in a lodging
house)
Observations of Dr. Rees Ralph LLewellyn upon arrival at Bucks
row at 4:00 AM on the morning of August 31st. After only a brief
examination of the body he pronounced Polly Nichols dead. He
noted that there was a wine glass and a half of blood in the
gutter at her side but claimed that he had no doubt that she had
been killed where she lay.
Inquest testimony as reported in The Times:
"Five teeth were
missing, and there was a slight laceration of the tongue. There
was a bruise running along the lower part of the jaw on the right
side of the face. That might have been caused by a blow from a
fist or pressure from a thumb. There was a circular bruise on the
left side of the face which also might have been inflicted by the
pressure of the fingers. On the left side of the neck, about 1
in. below the jaw, there was an incision about 4 in. in length,
and ran from a point immediately below the ear. On the same side,
but an inch below, and commencing about 1 in. in front of it, was
a circular incision, which terminated at a point about 3 in.
below the right jaw. That incision completely severed all the
tissues down to the vertebrae. The large vessels of the neck on
both sides were severed. The incision was about 8 in. in length.
the cuts must have been caused by a long-bladed knife, moderately
sharp, and used with great violence. No blood was found on the
breast, either of the body or the clothes. There were no injuries
about the body until just about the lower part of the abdomen.
Two or three inches from the left side was a wound running in a
jagged manner. The wound was a very deep one, and the tissues
were cut through. There were several incisions running across the
abdomen. There were three or four similar cuts running downwards,
on the right side, all of which had been caused by a knife which
had been used violently and downwards. the injuries were form
left to right and might have been done by a left handed person.
All the injuries had been caused by the same instrument."
With all of her faults she seems to have been well liked by
all who knew her. At the inquest her father says, "I don't
think she had any enemies, she was too good for that."
Funeral
Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols was buried on Thursday, 6 September, 1888.
That afternoon, Polly was transported in a polished elm coffin to Mr Henry
Smith, Hanbury Street undertaker. The cortege consisted of the hearse and
two mourning coaches, which carried Edward Walker, William Nichols, and
Edward John Nichols. Polly was buried at City of London Cemetery (Little
Ilford) at Manor Park Cemetery, Sebert Road, Forest Gate, London, E12,
(public) grave 210752 (on the edge of the current Memorial Garden).
The funeral expenses were paid for by Edaward Walker (Polly's father),
William Nichols (Polly's ex-husband), and Edward John Nichols (Polly's
son).
In late 1996, the cemetery authorities decided to mark Polly's grave with
a plaque.
Death Cetificate
Death Certificate: No. 370, registered 25 September, 1888 (DAZ 048850)
