Whitchapel Flashcards
What were rookeries?
Area filled with lodging houses where some of London’s poorest people lived in overcrowded conditions
What were ‘doss houses’?
Terrible condition houses from the late 1600s, yard built over for more rooms with narrow streets (16 feet widest), outside toilets but bucket and pot used inside
Who was Charles Booth?
Successful businessman interested in the poor - he hired 80 researchers to explore poverty, living conditions and religion across the capital leading to a series of maps which showed how poor each area was
What was Flower and Dean street?
A well known rookery - terrible reputation as a place full of thieves, drunkards and prostitutes
Deemed as vicious and a semi-criminal area by Booth
What were workhouses?
A houses which has strict rules - what people ate, how they worked and what time they went to sleep and woke up
Families were separated in here and could only see their children once a day
What was the Peabody Estate?
A famous rookery with a large number of lodging houses and a high death rate
Where was the Peabody Estate located?
South of Whitechapel road, just to the east of the Tower of London is Royal Mint street, it was just off Royal Mint Street
What were the difficulties of policing in Whitechapel?
Alcohol and Pubs
Gangs
Prostitution
Violent demonstrations and attacks on Jews
What difficulties to policing did “gangs” cause?
A gang called “Bessarabians” or “Stop-at-nothing gang” threatened the owners of Jewish businesses by using protection rackets.
They also preyed on immigrants as they were scared of authorities so they tended to pay up to avoid authorities
What were protection rackets?
A system of taking money from people while agreeing not to hurt them (gangs used this)
What difficulties to policing did “alcohol and pubs” cause?
Alcohol made small disputes worse and dangerous, and people more susceptible to crime.
Policemen had to make sure pubs kept to the terms of their license.
What difficulties to policing did “prostitution” cause?
It wasn’t a crime but keeping a brothel was illegal. It wasn’t a job but a necessity for women whose lives were in danger
What difficulties to policing did “violent demonstrations and attacks on Jews” cause?
Jews were defrauded of all their money and faced anti-semitism - they didn’t go to the police because they were treated badly by police in Russia and Poland
What did the police try to do to about “gangs”?
They performed investigations and ex-detective sergeant Leeson published some memoirs and stories which contained references to these gangs
What did the police try to do to about “alcohol and pubs”?
The police used as much violence as necessary
checked pubs closed on time
made sure no illegal boxing or gambling was happening
made it illegal to serve alcohol to a drunk person
What did the police try to do to about “prostitution”?
They made it illegal to keep a brothel after 1885 and dealt with the prostitutes
What did the police try to do to about “violent demonstrations and attacks on Jews”?
They tried to understand what was going on and they asked for funds to get lessons in Yiddish (a language spoken by Jewish immigrants)
What were the different reports taken of crime and punishment in Whitechapel?
Charles booth survey of poverty
Coroners’ reports
Reports from London newspapers
Old Bailey records of trials
Political cartoons
Census
National newspapers
Local police records
How would “Charles Booth survey” help as evidence?
It showed where different classes of people lived
How would “Coroner’s reports” help as evidence?
Helpful during murder cases to show how they died
How would “reports from London newspapers” help as evidence?
Good at showing what things happened locally
How would “Old Bailey records of trials” help as evidence?
You get both sides of the story
You get everything said and done during the trial
You get the verdict if the trial
