Whitechapel Flashcards
1
Q
What were workhouses like in whitechapel?
A
- like a prison
- inmates provided labour e.g picking fibres, cleaning, cooking
- for people who could not afford lodging
- goal was to not have people stay too long - drain on taxpayers
2
Q
What was housing and population like in whitechapel?
A
- extreme poverty - some of the worst in london
- inequality
- had lots of rookeries (areas filled with lodging houses)
- shown in 1889 census
3
Q
What was flower and dean street like in whitechapel?
A
- 902 people in 31 lodging houses - extremely overcrowded
- terrible reputation ‘viscious semi-criminal area’
- well know rookery -struggling area
- near well off areas - crime
4
Q
What was the peabody estate like?
A
- former rookery
- 1879 replaced with much nicer flats
- had huge death rate
- rent was too high - people moved to cheaper areas - more overcrowding
5
Q
What were tensions in white chapel?
A
- irish immigration
- eastern european jews
- socialism and anarchism
6
Q
What were the key features of Irish immigration in whitechapel?
A
- looked for work in whitechapel before moving to USA
- Fenian terrorism - planting bombs
- frequently got into drunken fights - bad reputation/disliked
- irish nationalists known as Fenians, locals suspicious of due to terrorism
7
Q
What was eastern european jewish immigration immigration like?
A
- only 1% of population Jews
- jews from eastern europe aimed to escape persecution after assasination of russian
tsar - blamed on jews - anti - semitism in London existed
-some areas of london jewish - deepening divisions
8
Q
What was the growth of socialism and anarchism like in whitechapel?
A
- socialism encouraged poorer people to rebel
- wanted to overthrow established governments
- socialism extremely popular aswell as anarchism
- failed revolution leaders fled from europe - increased mistrust
9
Q
What were the key features of the met police?
A
- set up 1829 by robert peel
- to cover all of london rather than just local areas paying own watchmen - poorer areas couldnt afford policing
10
Q
What were the key features of H division?
A
- Division of met policing district containing whitechapel
- consisted of superintendent, cheif inspector, 27 inspectors, 37 sergeants and 500 beat constables
- supported by 15 detectives from CID
11
Q
What was the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)
A
- set up by charles edward howard vincent 1878 after met bribery scandal
- made up of 216 officers
- set up to investigate crimes after taken place
12
Q
What were the key feataures of detectives in whitechapel?
A
- Allocated divisions - work with local constables
- Bribery scandal undermined police trust - creation of cid
- worked in plain clothes to follow suspects
- recieved unsolved crimes to investigate each day
- tried to identify habitual ciminals and monitor criminals released early on good behaviour
-main role: investigate and gather information
13
Q
Who did the beat constable recruit?
A
- age 21-32, max of 2 children, give up any other trade and have positive character refernces available
- appealed to working class men who would struggle for permenant jobs with decent pay
14
Q
What were the duties of beat constable?
A
- Walked ‘beat’ alone, day and night
- same route walked regularly- 30 mins day, 15 mins night
- job to detect crime on ‘beat’
- regularly changed beat to avoid corruption
15
Q
What were the challenges for police in whitechapel?
A
- alcohol
- political demonstrations
- immigration
- prostitution
- gangs
