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Whitechapel, c1870–c1900: Crime, Policing and the Inner City

The local context of Whitechapel

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Whitechapel's place in the East End, rookeries and Flower and Dean Street, the Dwellings Improvement Act of 1875 and slum clearance, George Peabody and the Peabody Estate of 1881, the workhouse and the casual ward, streets that helped criminals escape, and discontent in the 1880s.

What you need to know

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Key term

What was a rookery?

Numbers

When did the Peabody Estate in Whitechapel open, and where was it built?

Key term

What was the deterrent principle behind conditions inside a workhouse?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Where in London was Whitechapel, and what sort of district was it in the late nineteenth century?

    Model answer

    It stood in the East End, immediately beyond the eastern boundary of the City of London, and was a densely packed inner-city district known for poverty and casual labour.

  2. 2

    What was a rookery?

    Model answer

    A cluster of decaying, tightly packed slum buildings joined by narrow courts and passages, where the poorest lodged and wanted men could easily hide.

  3. 3

    What did a notorious slum street such as Flower and Dean Street look like?

    Model answer

    Tall houses divided into single rented rooms and common lodging houses opening onto cramped courts, with a whole family often living in one room.

  4. 4

    What power did the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act of 1875 give local authorities?

    Model answer

    It allowed them to buy up and pull down slum property so that better dwellings could be put up on the cleared land.

  5. 5

    Why did clearing slums often leave the poorest residents worse off?

    Model answer

    Their old rooms were demolished but the replacement blocks charged higher rents, so they crowded into whatever slum property was left standing nearby.

  6. 6

    Who was George Peabody and what did he do with his fortune?

    Model answer

    He was an American banker settled in London who gave a large sum to a trust founded to build sound, affordable homes for the city's working poor.

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