This point sits beside The Aldgate School, a Church of England primary school just off Mitre Square in the City of London.
Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 73–2020
The short answer
Mitre Square, London, is where Catherine Eddowes was murdered and mutilated in the early hours of 30 September 1888, less than two hours after police released her from custody nearby, making her the fourth of the Whitechapel murders and the only one committed inside the City of London. The square itself covers the old cloisters of a dissolved Augustinian priory.
City parish churches: St. Botolph Aldgate — 2008 · Chris Downer · CC BY-SA 2.0
1888
Catherine Eddowes was killed in the square's corner
The Aldgate School is a Church of England primary school that is the only state-funded school left in the City of London. Thirty-five meters away stands Mitre Square, a small, quiet square boxed in by old buildings. In the early hours of 30 September 1888, it was the scene of one of the most notorious killings in London's history.
Catherine Eddowes had been let out of Bishopsgate police station less than two hours earlier. A witness saw her talking to a man at the entrance to Mitre Square around 1:35 a.m. A police constable named Edward Watkins found her body in the square's southwest corner at 1:44 a.m. Her throat had been cut and her body mutilated. She was the fourth of the Whitechapel murders blamed on Jack the Ripper, and the only one to happen inside the City of London, which had its own police force investigating alongside Scotland Yard.
1108 to 1538
A priory's cloisters once covered this ground
Long before the murder, this ground belonged to Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, a monastery for Augustinian canons founded by Queen Matilda in 1108. Mitre Square sits on the site of its cloisters. Henry VIII dissolved the priory in 1538, scattering its canons and clearing the way for centuries of building and rebuilding on the same patch of ground.
The school beside it carries its own difficult history. Its founder, John Cass, built his fortune partly through the Atlantic slave trade, a fact that led trustees to strip his name from the building in 2020.
1709 to 1748
Cass died mid-signature and his will was contested
Sir John Cass founded a charity school in 1709 in the churchyard of St Botolph's Aldgate, teaching poor children to read and work. Cass was a City alderman and former Member of Parliament, knighted in 1712, who had grown rich partly through the Atlantic slave trade. On 5 July 1718, Cass sat down to sign a second will. He suffered a brain hemorrhage partway through and died with only three pages signed. Legend holds that his quill pen, white when he picked it up, turned red with his blood. His heirs fought the unfinished will for thirty years. The Court of Chancery finally upheld it in 1748, and the school reopened under the newly formed Sir John Cass's Foundation.
1908 to 1972
Bombed in the Blitz, the school was repaired
The school's current building rose on Dukes Place in 1908, designed by Arthur William Cooksey in a neo-Wren style of red brick and Portland stone. German bombs damaged it during the Blitz in May 1941, but builders repaired it and classes continued. Inside, a room holds 33 painted wood panels dated 1696, salvaged from a demolished house on Botolph Lane and signed by one P. Robinson, showing Chinese-style scenes among the earliest of their kind in the country. A lead statue of Cass by the sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac, commissioned in 1751, stood at the top of the stairs for decades before moving to the Guildhall in 1980. Historic England listed the building Grade II* in 1972, placing it among the most significant buildings in the country.
2020 to now
Trustees cut Cass's name over his slave trading
In September 2020, trustees renamed the school from Sir John Cass's Foundation Primary School to The Aldgate School, cutting ties to a name built on slave trading. The following year, the foundation itself was renamed the Portal Trust. Every February, pupils still walk from the school to St. Botolph's Church for a Founder's Day service, wearing red feathers in memory of the man whose money built the place, even as his name has gone from the door.
The Aldgate School today remains the only state-funded school left in the City of London, a small primary serving around 30 children per year group, drawing most of its pupils from the square mile around it. Its playground sits over ground that held a medieval priory's cloisters and, just steps away, the site where a woman was murdered in 1888.
Bevis Marks Synagogue stands about a quarter mile away, built in 1701 and still holding services as the oldest synagogue in continuous use in Britain.
The school's red brick building still stands on Dukes Place, a working primary school beside the square where Catherine Eddowes died.
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Ancient
Roman era to 1760
Scheduled remains of the Roman wall, its bastions, and Aldgate itself — the city gate that gave this area its name — survive just north, from 17 Bevis Marks to India Street; the gate itself was demolished in 1760.
A radiocarbon sample from 380 meters away, BM-2214R, dates human activity on this ground to between AD 597 and AD 993 — among the oldest direct evidence of people near this exact spot.
Sir John Cass died of a brain hemorrhage on 5 July 1718 while signing his second will, leaving it incomplete; his heirs contested it in Chancery until the school's foundation was finally upheld in 1748.
At the Old Bailey in 1847, William Smith was tried for forging an order for goods meant to defraud a Whitechapel butcher, a case recorded under Mitre Square.
In 1860, John Knight and William Silk were tried at the Old Bailey for stealing ten quarts of milk, a case tied to Mitre Square in the court's own records.
On 30 September 1888 Catherine Eddowes was killed and mutilated in the southwest corner of Mitre Square, less than two hours after police released her from custody nearby.
On 10 April 1992 a Provisional IRA bomb devastated the Baltic Exchange, roughly 220 meters from here, killing three people and badly damaging the historic building.
In September 2020 the school renamed itself from Sir John Cass's Foundation Primary School to The Aldgate School because of Cass's documented links to the Atlantic slave trade.
Catherine Eddowes was found murdered and mutilated in the square's southwest corner at 1:44 a.m. on 30 September 1888, less than two hours after police released her from Bishopsgate station. She was the fourth of the Whitechapel murders blamed on Jack the Ripper and the only one committed within the City of London.
What was here before Mitre Square existed?
The ground beneath Mitre Square held the cloisters of Holy Trinity Priory, an Augustinian monastery founded by Queen Matilda in 1108. Henry VIII dissolved the priory in 1538, clearing the site for later building.
Why was Sir John Cass's name removed from the school?
Trustees renamed the school from Sir John Cass's Foundation Primary School to The Aldgate School in September 2020 because Cass built part of his fortune through the Atlantic slave trade.
How did Sir John Cass die?
Cass suffered a brain hemorrhage on 5 July 1718 while signing his second will, leaving it only partly signed. Legend says his quill, white when he picked it up, turned red with his blood as he died.
Is The Aldgate School the only state school in the City of London?
Yes, it remains the only state-funded school left in the City of London, serving around 30 children per year group drawn mostly from the surrounding square mile.
Did the school building survive the Blitz?
German bombs damaged the school's 1908 building on Dukes Place in May 1941, but it was repaired afterwards and classes continued.
