{"id":43050,"date":"2012-08-04T05:11:07","date_gmt":"2012-08-04T11:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=43050"},"modified":"2020-04-21T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T20:11:00","slug":"blood-alley-and-gaolers-mews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=43050","title":{"rendered":"Blood Alley and Gaoler’s Mews"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard the stories (butcher shops, hauntings, murders, executions). I’ve read the controversy (that the Blood Alley name originates with a tourism push in the 1970s<\/a>). However, what I wasn’t prepared for was how gritty and eerie this place feels (even during the day). <\/p>\n

A friend recommended I take a walk down the alley — not because of the myth\/infamy, but because you can do an interesting wine tour amongst the foodie restaurants that line the alley and mews. Salt<\/em> came highly recommended, as did the Judas Goat<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly the feeling here is similar to the feeling I got while wandering the areas of London where Jack the Ripper<\/a> prowled. The graffiti in the alley is grim and the people who hang out are not tourist types. <\/p>\n

Instead, the housing in the alley looks rather rundown; in the past, it was a homeless shelter and it’s now low-income housing. This is strangely ironic: high-end foodie restaurants on one side and entrances to low-income housing on the other. <\/p>\n

In the end, I rather liked the alley because of this dichotomy… and chose to not eat \/ wine taste here because it seemed rather ostentatious and self-indulgent.<\/p>\n