whitechapel
what was whitechapel known for?
- high crime rates
- "H division"
- high levels of poor living and working conditions
- alcohol
- prostitution
- crime
what were the three types of housing?
- rookeries
- lodging houses
- workhouses
what were rookeries like?
- slum areas [allowed criminals to hide as it was dark and crowded]
- extremely overcrowded
- poor sanitation
- most people lived in rookeries
what were lodging houses like?
- had to pay a nightly fee to access [hotel-like]
- 1/4 of the population lived in these
- 232
what were workhouses like?
- made to deter
- conditions were deliberatly poor
- uniform
- families split
- last resort for people
- elderly / ill / orphans / unmarried / disabled
- strict rules
- offered a bed and food in return of hard labour [e.g picking oakum]
when and where were orphans kept ?
- after 1880
- sent to barnardos homes
- better conditions than workhouses
what did unemployment cause?
- wonen turned to prostitution to survive [social problems/dangerous]
- few jobs available to women
- high unemployment rate
- caused by economic depression
- those that had jobs: long hours/low pay/factories/cramped and dirty
why was crime so high?
- high levels of prostitution: violence against women
- low income levels: led to stealing for survival by those desperate to avoid the workhouses
- overcrowding: tensions between residents [especially immigrants] resulted in violence
- lack of work: many had a lot of spare time so they would drink which led to violence and disruptive behaviour
why did alcohol cause crime ?
- 45 pubs
- available to even the poorest
- coping mechanism
- vulnerable to crime
what was the peabody estates?
- george peabody paid for the building of 11 blocks of flats in a former slum
- opened in 1881
- tenants charged reasonable rent
- better conditions
- if you couldnt afford it uou were thrown out
what did immigration cause?
- residents faced increasing competitions with immigrants for housing and jobs leading to violence
- during jack the ripper people argued that he wasnt english as he wouldnt be capable of such barbaric acts if he was
facts about irish immigration:
- reputation for being drunk and violent
- associated with terrorism
- poverty meant they could only live in the cheapest parts of london
- many irish left the usa but ended up in london
- most worked as navvies [building roads/cannals/railways]
facts about eastern european jews:
- mostly were polish or russian
- fled persecution of the russian empire
- poverty meant that they could only settle in the cheapest parts
- tended to stick together [segregation]
- recent jewish immigrants agreed to lower pay and poor conditions which increased the sweatshop system [factories where workers were treated unfairly]
- antisemetism grew rapidly
facts about anarchism and socialism:
- both movements feared by the authorities middle class and upper classes
- wave of revolutions across europe which ended up in london
- movements set up or supported by revolutionaries were anarchism [opposed to organised government/socialism/capitalism]
facts about gangs:
- feared so they were rarelt reported
- demanded protection money to protect businesses [refusal led to damaged property]
- bessarabians
facts about the whitechapel vigilance commitee:
- patrolled streets every night with torches
- 1888
- dissrupted police investigation and also hampered the police by sending false leads
- set up by businessmen due to the lack of progress from the police in catching the ripper
- offered a reward for information leading to him