Ratcliff Highway murders

In December 1811, this road was the site of two separate massacres that terrorized London and changed the course of British law enforcement forever. Seven people, including an infant, were brutally murdered in their homes within twelve days of each other. The first attack occurred at a linen draper shop at number twenty-nine, and the second took place at the King's Arms tavern nearby. These events turned the Ratcliff Highway into a symbol of unchecked urban violence, as the city possessed no professional police force at the time to secure its growing population.