Whitechapel - Historic Environment Flashcards
Paper 1
What was Whitechapel like?
> Whitechapel is an area of London’s East End, just outside the City of London.
In the 19th century it was an area of poverty, where lots of different people lived.
Gangs ruled the streets.
Other parts of Whitechapel were more respectable.
Whitechapel was very densely populated - 188.6 people living in each acre.
Pollution and poor sanitation.
> In the 19th century, London was heavily polluted.
In Whitechapel, sanitation was poor.
There was little healthy drinking water and sewers ran into the streets.
Rookeries
An area filled with lodging houses in which some of London’s poorest people lived in terribly overcrowded conditions.
Flower and Dean Street
> In 1870, the street was a well-known rookery.
Terrible reputation as a haunt for thieves, drunkards and prostitutes.
In 1871, Census stated that there were 902 lodgers staying in 31 of the ‘doss’ houses on this street alone.
‘Doss houses’ date back to late 1600 and were in terrible conditions.
Workhouse and Casual Ward
> Those who couldn’t afford a bed for a night in a ‘doss house’, or who were too young, old or unwell to work could go to the workhouse.
Strict rules on what they ate, when they woke up nad went to bed and how they worked.
So people were reluctant to go to the workhouse.
Families were separated.
Set up in early 1800s as part of the poor relief system.
Would take around 400 inmates.
Only enough beds for 60 people per night.
Very harsh rules.
Work to earn bed for the night.
The Peabody Estate
> Just off Royal Mint Street there was a rookery a bit like Flower and Dean Street.
Annual death rate in the area in the years after 1865 was more than 50 in 100 - double the rest of London.
In 1876, the Metropolitan Board of Works bought the area for slum clearance before selling it to the charity Peabody Trust in 1879.
The trust built a block of flats which were designed to be more affordable.
By 1881, 287 flats had been built.
Much more pleasant to live in - surrounded by yard for improved ventilation.
However, rents were still too high and tenants behind on their rent were immediately thrown out.
This caused more overcrowding elsewhere.
Victorians and the fear of crime in the East End.
> Idea 1 - A criminal underclass.
>Idea 2 - Alcohol.
A criminal underclass
> Some thought people were born as criminals.
The Residum.
Drawn to the hard-working people of London and lived off them.
Others believe unhealthy conditions would spread criminal behaviour.
Alcohol
> Way of coping with the difficulties of life.
Makes people the victim of crime.
Addiction to alcohol was responsible for committing crimes.
All of Jack the Ripper’s victims were drunk.
Nationalist
> Someone who loves their country and wants it to be independent.
Why did the Whitechapel fear a race riot?
> Socio-economic tensions.
Racism/fear of foreigners.
Fear of political radicalism.
Socio-economic tensions.
> English people blamed mass immigration for rapidly rising rent prices.
Competition for jobs between Jewish tailors and shopkeepers and the existing ‘native’ business owners.
Racism/fear of foreigners.
> Some East end Jews were slow to learn English and tended to converse Yiddish.
This language barrier helped keep them segregated.
Churches in Whitechapel were actively trying to convert Jews to Christianity.
Polish were accused of murder with no evidence.
Fear of political radicalism.
> Demand for Irish Home Rule.
>Jews going to turn government upside down.
Booth’s Poverty Map
> The map shows a variety of classes spread out across Whitechapel.
Well-to-do people next to more criminal areas.
Different groups/races in Whitechapel.
>Eastern European immigrants. >Irish. >Fenians. >Growth of socialism. >Growth of anarchism.
Eastern European Immigrants.
> A wave of immigration, from Eastern Europe, came to Whitechapel in the 1880s.
1881 - Tsar Alexander II of Russian was assassinated and a Jew was blamed, causing a wave of violence and abuse against Russian Jews backed by the government.
Many Jews came to London to escape these attacks.
By 1888, the Jewish population of some parts of Whitechapel had grown to 95% of its’ total.
Whitechapel became a self-segregated community where Jewish settlers chose to live separately from others.
They were widely resented by the local population, based around cultural differences and conflicting attitudes towards work and business:
-Success of Jews quick employment or set up of business was resented by locals.
-Jews often accepted lower wages.
-Many Jewish immigrants ran tailoring sweatshops - prices were hard to compete with.
-Jewish holy day was on a Saturday so they were free to work on Sunday.
-Religion and cultural rules about food and clothing made them stand out.
-Locals were suspicious of the unfamiliar customs and language.
Irish
> Irish immigration had been happening in large numbers since the 1800s.
They were often young men who came to London with plans to move to America but ran out of money before they could find a ship to take them.
They settled in areas near rivers and made their living as navigators or navvies who did labouring jobs on canals, roads and railways or as dockers on the River Thames.
Violence amongst them was common place and they were not well liked.
Fenians
> In the mid and late 1800s, Irish nationalists were demanding freedom from the UK rule.
This was led by the Fenians.
The Fenians were seen as a fanatical, religious terrorist movement.
A new department of the Metropolitan Police was set up to counter Irish terrorism.
They organised a bomb attack on Clerkenwell Prison in 1867.
After this there was a huge surge in anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment.
Events like these made lives for Irish immigrants hard as they were seen as probable Fenians and potential traitors.
Media assisted these attitudes towards the Irish.
Growth of socialism.
> The socialists were a potentially revolutionary group.
The Socialist Democratic Federation formed in 1881 and was the first socialist party in Britain.
Represented agricultural and industrial labourers and the rights of women.
It’s leadership (Radicals) wanted to bring down the capitalist system.
Saw the police as the face of the government that didn’t care for the people.
Growth of anarchism.
> From the mid 19th Century , social and economic problems across Europe led to the growth in political movements.
Anarchy was one of the most prominent movements. >When attempts at revolution failed the leaders often fled to Britain as it was seen as politically tolerant.
Some felt that East London had become a refuge for other nation’s terrorists.
I893 - Special Branch began an undercover operation to monitor Eastern European revolutionaries - the concerns were out of proportion.
Immigration
> Jewish immigrants tended to cluster in particular areas where they were almost 100 per cent of the population.
Jewish people were still a minority.
Jewish immigrants of the 1880s and 1890s were drawn to Flower and Dean Street.
Reformers
> Reformers wanted to open up the East End and Whitechapel in particular by widening roads, and by knocking down the rookeries and lodging houses.
It was these ideas that led to the calls for laws to knock down slums and replace them with new housing projects like the Peabody Estate.
This schemes often didn’t benefit those people in the greatest need.
They found themselves crowding into other lodging houses.
They were in competition for rented accommodation with immigrants from Ireland and eastern Europe.
This meant that efforts to improve the environment and the character of the East End seemed fruitless.
Why was Whitechapel so difficult to police?
>Demonstrations >Alcohol >H Division >Prostitution >Immigrants >Protection Racquets >Vigilance Committee >Local Authorities
> Policing - demonstrations
> Autumn of 1889, 10 000 sweatshop tailors went on strike.
>1888 riots over long hours and low wages.
> Policing - alcohol
> Escape from life often leading to violence - vicious circle.
Pubs and gin houses on every street corner.
