From May or June 1888, Annie was living consistently at Crossingham’s Lodging House at 35 Dorset Street, Spitalfields, which catered for approximately 300 people. The deputy was Timothy Donovan. She paid 8d (4p) for a double bed.
More recently, Annie had been having a relationship with Edward Stanley, a bricklayer’s mate, known as the Pensioner. At the time of Annie’s murder he was living at 1 Osborn Place, Whitechapel. Stanley and Annie spent weekends together at Crossingham’s. Stanley instructed Donovan to turn Annie away if she tried to enter with another man. He often paid for Annie’s bed as well as that of Eliza Cooper. They spent Saturdays and Sundays together, parting between 1:00 and 3:00 AM on Sundays. Stanley said that he had known Annie in Windsor.
On Saturday, September 1, 1888, Edward Stanley returned after having been away since August 6. He met Annie at the corner of Brushfield Street. Sometime close to this date, Annie had a fight with Eliza Cooper. The fight has several different tellings but all revolve around Edward Stanley. An argument broke out in the Britannia Public House between Eliza Cooper and Annie. Also present were Stanley and Harry the Hawker. Cooper was Annie’s rival for the affections of Stanley. Cooper struck her, giving her a black eye and bruising her breast. The cause was given as: Chapman noticed Cooper palming a florin belonging to Harry, who was drunk, and replacing it with a penny. Chapman mentions this to Harry and otherwise calls attention to Cooper’s deceit. Cooper said she struck Annie in the pub on September 2nd. Amelia Palmer said that Annie told her the argument took place at the pub but the fisticuffs took place at the lodging house, later. John Evans, night watchman at the lodging house said the fight broke out in the lodging house on September 6th. Cooper also said that the fight was not over Harry but over soap which Annie had borrowed for the Pensioner and not returned. In one version of the story, Annie is to have thrown a half penny at Cooper and slapped her in the face saying “Think yourself lucky I did not do more.” Donovan stated that on August 30th he noticed she had a black eye. “Tim, this is lovely, aint it.” She was to have said to him. Stanley noticed that she had a black eye on the evening of September 2nd and on the 3rd Annie showed her bruises to Amelia Palmer. Donovan will tell the inquest into her death that she was not at the lodging house during the week prior to her death. So it appears from the bulk of the evidence that the fight took place in the last few days of August and probably in the lodging house.
At her murder's inquest he said he had known Annie Chapman for about two years and sometimes paid for her bed at Crossingham's Lodging House and had last seen Chapman on 2nd September 1888 between 1.00pm and 3.00pm.