PHOTOGRAPH BY LOOK AND LEARN/BRIDGEMAN/ACI
https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2018/10/who-was-jack-ripper
PublisherEncyclopædia Britannica
Urlhttps://www.britannica.com/place/River-Thames/images-videos#/media/1/589890/16208
Access DateMay 22, 2020
London experienced explosive growth during the 1800s. Huge numbers of rural poor moved to the city during the Industrial Revolution, boosting the population to 2.7 million by 1851 and to 6.6 million by 1901. At the time, London was the largest city in the world. Its massive size brought new problems, including overcrowding, housing shortages, and widespread poverty. (Source: https://school.ebonline.com/levels/middle/article/Whitechapel-Murders/632083#344254.toc)
The Distress in the East End of London (engraving). Illustration. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 6 Dec 2017.
quest.eb.com/search/108_2415009/1/108_2415009/cite. Accessed 22 May 2020.
The appalling conditions in Whitechapel and other parts of London drew the attention of social reformers. New laws improved conditions in workhouses and brought progress in sanitation, public health, and education. Peabody, a housing organization, built clusters of affordable apartment buildings that were intended to house working people. In Whitechapel, Peabody cleared a large area of slum housing and built an estate that opened in 1881. However, these efforts were not enough to solve the entrenched problems that Whitechapel faced. (Source: https://school.ebonline.com/levels/middle/article/Whitechapel-Murders/632083)
Whitechapel: Booth's poverty map. Image. Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 8 Feb. 2020. school.ebonline.com/levels/middle/assembly/view/243500. Accessed 27 May. 2020.
Charles Booth, a shipowner, sought to refute socialist allegations that a quarter of London’s population lived in poverty. He thought this exaggerated, but his research, published in 17 volumes, revealed that the true figure was even higher at one third.
Here his extensive survey is presented in cartographical form with the levels of poverty colour coded. For example, dark blue represents 'Very poor. Casual, chronic want', while black stands for 'Lowest class. Vicious, semi criminal.' This sometimes conceals as much as it reveals. The purple of the mixed areas obscured much poverty while domestic servants in the yellow areas would hardly have been wealthy. Although Booth has no qualms about labelling the very poorest areas ’vicious semi-criminal’, no comments are made about the ethics of the rich. (Source: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/charles-booths-london-poverty-map)
London: Whitechapel district. Image. Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 8 Feb. 2020. school.ebonline.com/levels/middle/assembly/view/243501. Accessed 27 May. 2020
Whitechapel, in the East End, became the site of some of the city’s most dismal slums—densely populated, unsanitary, and destitute. The poorest residents lived in workhouses, where they toiled for miserably low wages under harsh and degrading conditions. Homeless people who could scrape together a small fee might sleep for a night in a lodging house, where living conditions were barely an improvement over the workhouses. With few opportunities for legitimate employment, many Whitechapel residents turned to crime. (Source: https://school.ebonline.com/levels/middle/article/Whitechapel-Murders/632083)
Whitechapel Murders: Punch cartoon. Image. Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 8 Feb. 2020. school.ebonline.com/levels/middle/assembly/view/243506. Accessed 27 May. 2020.
"With the Vigilance Committee in the East End: A Suspicious Character" from The Illustrated London News, 13 October 1888
The failure of the police to arrest the killer raised a public uproar. It led to Warren’s resignation and urged citizens to take the matter into their own hands. They formed a number of organizations called vigilance committees, the best-known being the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. These groups patrolled the streets and raised funds for a reward for information leading to an arrest, which the Home Office had not done. Yet the vigilance committees, too, were unable to catch the killer. (Source: https://school.ebonline.com/levels/middle/article/Whitechapel-Murders/632083)
This photo, taken around 1902, shows Dorset Street, termed 'the worst street in London and is near the scene of one of Jack the Ripper's crimes
Photograph by Mary Evans/Cordon Press
Women and girls and a young boy at work in Bryant and May's match factory, Fairfield Road, Bow, London. From The Illustrated London News (London, 1871). Engraving.. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016. quest.eb.com/search/300_2284770/1/300_2284770/cite. Accessed 27 May 2020.
Until the 1840s children as young as five worked in underground mines for up to 12 hours a day. The Factory Act of 1878 banned employment of children under the age of 10. However, poor families often still sent children out to work because they needed the money. After 1842 the employment of women and children in the mines was made illegal. After 1844 working hours were limited for children and women in factories. (Source: https://school.ebonline.com/levels/middle/article/Victorian-Age/605270)
Lockout and demonstration at the Bryant and May match factory, 1888.. Photograph. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/102_548168/1/102_548168/cite. Accessed 27 May 2020.