The local context of Whitechapel Flashcards
Where is Whitechapel ?
An area of London, east of the city. The the 1800s the city had very high levels of poverty and poor living and working conditions which all contributed to high crime rate.
- 30,000 people lived there
mixed population
Although Whitechapel was marked by poverty, there were businesses and richer inhabitants whom traded and lived on larger roads such as Whitechapel or commercial road.
Pollution and poor sanitation
London suffered from terrible pollution from the coal, gas fumes and industries e.g. the London smog severely restricted visibility and caused death from respiration.
Sewage poor and water unreliable causing diseases such as typhus and cholera
Housing
Slum housing, rookeries in WC where most housing was located, overcrowded with poor sanitation.
Houses were divided into separate apartment, sometimes with 30 people in each house.
In 1881 WC 30,709 people lived in 4069 houses - an average of 7.5 in each
- WC population density was 189 per acre compared to 45 in London as a whole
- Lodging houses, where lodgers paid a nightly fees for a bed and access to kitchen were particularly squalid . around a quarter of WC population lived in lodging houses
Homelessness
There were lodging houses, doss houses where homeless people would sleep in 8 hour shifts.
Terrible unhygienic conditions including heat, rats and shared beds .
Around 200 lodging houses would cater for 8000 people
Example of Flower and dean streets
1871 census : 902 lodgers living in 31 doss houses
1871 board of work reports : 38 houses, 143 rooms and 298 people.
Including evidence of : overcrowding, narrow yards, dilapidated houses, cramped rooms, poor sewage and terrible reputation for prostitution, thieves , violent crime.
Modern police profiling suggest JTR lived on flower and dean street
Model housing - The Peabody estate
Artisan’s Dwellings Act, 1875 encouraged slum clearance .
George Peabody paid for the building of 11 blocks of flats in a former slum. The Peabody estate opened in 1881 and tenants were charged reasonable rents.
Subsequent improvements
Houses of the working class act, 1890 sought to replace slums. The pubic health amendment act 1890 aimed to improve sewage and rubbish collection.
In part the Acts were prompted by the Jtr murders and the resulting attention on poverty and squalor in WC
Much of work in WC
Casual labour - such as in docks or in construction - meant workers employed a day at a time: no job or income security
Sweated labour - Work in cramped, dusty and unhealthy “sweatshops” for low wages in “sweated trades” e.g. tailoring and shoe making
Workhouses
Set up in c.19th century to offer food and shelter to those who were too poor to survive in general community.
Inmates including: poor, old, sick, disabled, elderly, mothers and their children
Conditions made deliberately worst by labourers to keep costs down and dissuade people from using them. Last resort
Stigma about workhouse. As a rule, people avoid workhouse as long as possible and hard to leave once in.
Families separated and forbidden from communicating. Inmates wore uniform, expected to do tough labour, received monotonous food, little or no privacy.
Vagrants stayed 1 or 2 nights - considered lazy and bad influence so kept separate .
Orphanages
1870 Dr Thomas Barnardo set up his first orphanage
By 1905, 100 Barnardo homes caring for 8500 orphans
