Whitechapel
- Whitechapel is in the East End of London between Aldgate and Spitalfields in the West, and Mile End in the East. It was just outside the city centre ¼ mile boundary.
- Characteristics of the area:
- Whitechapel had a population made up of a great deal of foreign immigrants. They were often poor and the rents were cheap
- There were an estimated 1,200 prostitutes working in the Whitechapel area
- Sheep and cattle were herded through the streets leaving blood and excrement, spreading disease and health problems
- Many children born in the East End and Whitechapel area died before the age of 5
- Whitechapel held a lot of public houses, often used by old men drowning their sorrows
- The sheet describes Whitechapel as an area full of problems. “Whitechapel had a very large population that lived near to, or on the wrong side of, the law”. Most of the people living in Whitechapel were foreign immigrants who had come to London with little or no money. It was a very crowded area with narrow roads and a smoky atmosphere. It is likely that there were quite a lot of drunks around, due to the amount of public houses and customers. People of the middle class at the time thought it a “shocking place, an evil collection of slums…where every citizen wears a black eye”. This also tells us that a lot of fights went on in Whitechapel. Lodging conditions were very bad; whole families would be crammed into one small room. Some rooms even held two or three families at a time.
- My opinion of the policing in the area was that it had the potential to work, however it was very inexperienced and they concentrated on the wrong things. The MET spent a lot of time and energy on working towards their public image. There was a great emphasis on things such as personal appearance and good, respectable behaviour. Inspections were often based on the parades and military drills rather than the quantity of their police work.
