Whitechapel, c1870–c1900 Flashcards
All 40 cards in this deck
What was the Peabody Estate in Whitechapel?
A model housing estate of 11 blocks of flats, opened in 1881, built to replace courtyard slums and paid for by the American George Peabody.
Which 1875 Act led to the slum clearance that made way for the Peabody Estate?
The Artisans' Dwellings Act (1875).
What did the Whitechapel workhouses provide, and what was expected in return?
Accommodation for the destitute; inmates had to do hard work in return for their place.
Give one way the environment of Whitechapel made crime easier to commit.
Its rookeries, dark narrow alleys and courts were badly lit, so criminals could hide and escape easily.
True or false? Families stayed together in the Whitechapel workhouses.
False. Families were separated into different sections for men, women and children.
What was a Whitechapel lodging house?
Cheap temporary accommodation costing a few pence a night; they were overcrowded and unhygienic.
True or false? In some Whitechapel lodging houses two or three men could be charged for the same bed in one day.
True. Men slept in 8-hour shifts in a bed so owners could maximise profits.
What kind of work was available to most people in Whitechapel?
Casual, irregular and low-paid work, such as 'sweated' trades like tailoring and shoemaking, dock work and street selling.
Why did Jewish migration into Whitechapel increase during the 1880s?
Jewish people were fleeing persecution and pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Which division of the Metropolitan Police was responsible for Whitechapel?
H Division.
What was the role of the beat constable in Whitechapel?
To patrol a set route on foot so that police presence prevented crime, and to deal with drunks, traffic and accidents.
What was a rookery?
A slum district of overcrowded, run-down housing in a maze of narrow alleys and courts, which beat constables found hard to patrol.
What was a protection racket in Whitechapel?
Gangs threatened to damage a business unless the owner paid them a fee regularly.
Give one reason Jewish people in Whitechapel were attacked.
Migrants were seen as a threat by people already living there, blamed for taking jobs, housing and working for low wages.
True or false? Most of the crime H Division dealt with in Whitechapel was murder.
False. Most was petty theft, drunkenness and disorder, much of it linked to the area's many pubs.
Who was Inspector Frederick Abberline?
A Scotland Yard (CID) inspector who had served in H Division, sent back to Whitechapel to lead the detectives on the ground in the Ripper investigation.
What was the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee?
A volunteer group of local shopkeepers and property owners formed in 1888, led by George Lusk, to protect the area during the Ripper murders.
What did the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee do when the government refused to offer a reward?
It put up its own reward for information, and paid unemployed men to patrol the streets at night.
Give two investigative techniques used by detectives in the Ripper investigation.
Any two of: sketches, photographs of crime scenes and victims, interviewing witnesses house to house, post-mortem evidence, bloodhounds, police in disguise.
Why did the Ripper murders cause problems of cooperation between police forces?
The crimes fell in different areas, so the Metropolitan Police had to work with the City of London Police, and information was not always shared.
Give one way media reporting hindered the hunt for Jack the Ripper.
Sensational newspaper reporting spread panic and false leads, such as publishing hoax letters, and increased pressure on the police.
True or false? The police used fingerprint evidence in the Ripper investigation.
False. British police did not use fingerprinting until Scotland Yard set up its Fingerprint Bureau in 1901.
Who was Sir Charles Warren?
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, 1886–88; criticised for mistakes such as ordering a chalk message on a wall in Goulston Street to be washed off before it was photographed, and he resigned in 1888.
What was the Home Secretary's role in policing?
The government minister responsible for the Metropolitan Police; he appointed the Commissioner, and in 1888 refused to offer a reward for information on the Ripper.
Why was the CID set up in 1878?
The 1877 'Trial of the Detectives' showed that senior Scotland Yard detectives had taken bribes, so the Detective Branch was replaced by the Criminal Investigation Department under Howard Vincent.
Give one problem with the quality of Metropolitan Police recruits in the 1880s.
Many were new and inexperienced and had little local knowledge of Whitechapel's streets and criminals.
True or false? The public in the 1880s generally saw the Metropolitan Police as efficient and respected.
False. Many, especially in poor areas and in the press, mocked the police as incompetent, particularly after the Ripper murders.
What did Charles Booth's survey record?
Poverty in London street by street, with maps colour-coding each street from wealthy down to the 'lowest class, vicious, semi-criminal'.
What do census returns record?
Every household every ten years: names, ages, jobs and birthplaces — useful evidence of overcrowding and migration in Whitechapel.
What were the Old Bailey records?
Records of trials at London's central criminal court, giving details of the crime, the accused, witness statements and the sentence.
What was Punch?
A national satirical magazine whose cartoons commented on issues of current concern, such as the police's failure to catch the Ripper.
True or false? A Punch cartoon is of no use to a historian because it exaggerates.
False. Cartoons were exaggerated to make a point, but they still show what the public was concerned about at the time.
Which source would best show how many officers Whitechapel's H Division had compared with other parts of London?
Police records of the numbers employed in each division.
Who made up most of the inmates of the Whitechapel workhouses?
Mostly people who could not support themselves: older people, the sick or disabled, unmarried mothers and orphaned children.
What work did most Irish migrants in Whitechapel do?
Heavy labouring: many were navvies building roads and railways, or worked at the docks.
Why did lodging houses give Whitechapel a 'fluctuating population'?
Lodgers paid by the night and moved on often, so many residents had no lasting ties to their neighbours or the area, weakening the sense of community.
Where did Jewish migrants tend to live in Whitechapel by the late 1880s?
Close together in the cheapest streets, so that some parts of Whitechapel became almost entirely Jewish.
Roughly how many prostitutes did the police estimate were working in Whitechapel in 1888?
About 1,200. Few other jobs were open to women, so many had no other way to survive, and they were very vulnerable to violent attack.
What happened on 'Bloody Sunday', 13 November 1887?
Sir Charles Warren banned a protest in Trafalgar Square; police backed by soldiers broke it up, many were injured, and working-class Londoners grew more hostile to the Met.
Why was the Metropolitan Police stretched thin in the 1880s?
In 1885 it had only about 13,000 officers for a city of over five million, and only around 1,400 were on duty at any one time.