For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by urban legends and folklore. In fact, many years ago, I created a series of collages depicting the Bloody Mary legend for my A-Level art exhibition. Urban legends can tell us as much about ourselves and human nature as the fantastical creatures and yarns they’re depicting. Arguably one of the most famous (or should that be ‘infamous?’) urban legends of the nineteenth century is Spring-Heeled Jack. In this month’s blog, we dip our toe into the legend that’s still talked about to this day.
Who (or what) was Spring-Heeled Jack?
The earliest alleged sightings of Spring-Heeled Jack were in 1838. The following is an excerpt published in The Times on 22nd February 1838:
Many among the public have hitherto been incredulous as to the truth of various representations made to the Lord Mayor of the gambols of “Spring-heeled Jack,” the suburban ghost, and believed from there being no positive proof of the miscreant carrying his pranks beyond the mere act of alarming unprotected females, that those statements were more the effect of imagination than reality. The following authentic particulars, however, of a gross and violent outrage committed on a respectable young lady, and which might not only have caused her death, but that of both her sisters, by the unmanly brute, will remove all doubt on the subject.
Yesterday, Mr. Alsop, a gentleman of considerable property residing at Bear-bind Cottage, in Bear-bind-lane, a very lonely spot between the villages of Bow and Old Ford, accompanied by his three daughters, waited upon Mr. HARDWICK at Lambeth-street Police-office, and gave the following particulars of an outrage committed on one of the latter:-
Miss Jane Alsop, a young lady 18 years of age, stated that at about a quarter to 9 o’clock on the preceding night she head a violent ringing at the gate in front of the house, and on going to the door to see what was the matter she saw a man standing outside, of whom she inquired what was the matter, and requested he would not ring so loud. The person instantly replied that he was a policeman, and said “For God’s sake, bring me a light, for we have caught Spring-heeled Jack here in the lane.” She returned into the house and brought a candle and handed it to the person, who appeared enveloped in a large cloak, and whom she at first really believed to be a policeman. The instant she had done so, however, he threw off his outer garment, and applying the lighted candle to his breast, presented a most hideous and frightful appearance, and vomited forth a quantity of blue and white flame from his mouth, and his eyes resembled red balls of fire. From the hasty glance which her fright enabled her to get at his person, she observed that he wore a large helmet, and his dress, which appeared to fit him very tight, seemed to her to resemble white oil skin.
According to Chris Upton in his article Spring-Heeled Jack on the BBC’s archived Legacies webpage, the “last publicly testified sighting that reached the newspapers was in September 1904, when the newspapers reported a figure seen ‘jumping over a building in William Henry Street’.” William Henry street being, I presume, in the Black Country as Chris’s article largely covers alleged sightings in this area.
As with the moniker assigned to the infamous Whitechapel serial killer, the name ‘Jack’ has also been attached to this urban legend. Whilst it’s not fully known why ‘Jack’ is the name of choice, it’s nonetheless common for the name to be given to persons (or creatures) whose true identity is unknown. The ‘Spring-heeled’ part was assigned to the urban legend on account of the man’s (or creature’s) ability to leap onto and over buildings as easily as if he had springs in his heels.
Although initially reported as a someone (or something) who performed the “mere act of alarming unprotected females,” Spring-Heeled Jack eventually joined the ranks of bogeymen called upon by parents to frighten their wayward children into obedience. In fact, according to Chris Upton’s article, “older Black Country residents still recall being threatened with an appearance by Jack if they failed to go to bed on time.”
Modern Depictions of Spring-Heeled Jack
Like all good urban legends, Spring-Heeled Jack has endured into the modern era. It has also evolved during that time to encompass the notions of Jack as a complex individual who can be the hero (instead of the villain), a vigilante, or even a time traveller. A few notable examples of these modern depictions are:
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder (A Novel)
Blurb: It is 1861, and Albertian Britain is in the grip of conflicting forces.
Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labour; Libertines oppose restrictive and unjust laws and flood the country with propaganda demanding a society based on beauty and creativity; while The Rakes push the boundaries of human behaviour to the limits with magic, sexuality, drugs and anarchy.
Returning from his failed expedition to find the source of the Nile, explorer, linguist, scholar and swordsman Sir Richard Francis Burton finds himself sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, employs him as ‘King’s Spy’.
His first mission: to investigate the sexual assaults committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack; to find out why chimney sweeps are being kidnapped by half-man, half-dog creatures; and to discover the whereabouts of his badly injured former friend, John Hanning Speke.
Accompanied by the diminutive and pain-loving poet, Algernon Swinburne, Burton’s investigations lead him back to one of the defining events of the age: the brutal assassination of Queen Victoria in 1840; and the terrifying possibility that the world he inhabits shouldn’t exist at all.
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (Video Game)
Depiction: The character appears in the 2015 video game during specific “Ghost Club” missions, where players can encounter him.
The Springheel Saga by The Wireless Theatre Company
Introduction: Wireless Theatre Company’s award-winning flagship series, set in Victorian London. Alternative history, based on a Victorian urban legend, with a satisfying sci-fi twist.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief foray into the Spring-Heeled Jack urban legend. I may have Mr Verity, the Spiritualist amongst the Bow Street Society’s members, encounter Spring-Heeled Jack either in a short story or a spin-off tale (when I reach that point), who knows? Until then, think twice about opening the door to a man claiming to be the police and captor of Spring-Heeled Jack, for it might just be the man himself.
~ T.G. Campbell, September 2025
Sources of reference:
Excerpt from The Times, February 22, 1838
Courtesy of Lee Jackson’s Dictionary of Victorian London: https://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm
Drawing of Spring-Heeled Jack (Top)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/e63f118b0b59a617e982f9e7c12e3f97ad642e24.jpg
Drawing of Spring-Heeled Jack (Bottom)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/806a15de866671075b2c65b91268bb20554e4123.jpg
Spring-Heeled Jack article by Chris Upton
https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/england/black_country/article_1.shtml