The Problems of Housing & Overcrowding in Whitechapel (Edexcel GCSE History)

How did the Environment of Whitechapel Compare to the Standard of Living in England in the 19th Century? - Summary

What was it Like to Live in Whitechapel?

• Whitechapel is located in East London

What did Whitechapel look like in the nineteenth century?

A map showing the key areas of Whitechapel and the locations of Jack the Ripper’s victims

• Whitechapel used to be a wealthy area of London

  • Many breweries and tanneries opened in Whitechapel during the Industrial Revolution

    •  The smell deterred the wealthy away from the area

• Whitechapel was one of London’s poorest districts in the nineteenth century

  • Out of a population of 30,000 people, roughly 1,000 people were homeless

  • Many people suffered from unemployment 

  • Some women became prostitutes to survive

• Some wealthier people lived and worked in Whitechapel

  • Most wealthier people lived on Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road

• Whitechapel contained many nationalities 

  • The area had a high level of immigration, particularly from Ireland and Eastern Europe

What were living conditions like in nineteenth-century Whitechapel?

• Whitechapel suffered from air pollution

  • Smoke and fumes from London’s many factories blew from west to east

  • Whitechapel contained many small, narrow streets and alleyways

    • For an outsider, Whitechapel would have felt like a maze. People could easily get lost

    • In some situations, a person navigating through Whitechapel would struggle to see their hand in front of their face

• Pollution also affected Whitechapel’s water supply

  • There was little clean drinking water

    • As a result, many residents of Whitechapel drank alcohol instead of water

• Whitechapel had poor sanitation

  • It was common to see sewage in the streets

Whitechapel's Rookeries

• Whitechapel was a very overcrowded area of London

  • The 1881 Census showed that Whitechapel’s 30,709 population lived in only 4,069 houses

• Overcrowded areas with poor-quality houses were called ‘Rookeries’

  • Houses were divided into apartments

    • Landlords could get more money renting individual apartments

    • In 1877, one rookery contained 123 rooms housing 757 people

  • Each apartment contained multiple families

    • An apartment could contain up to 30 people. Sometimes, families would sleep in the same bed

  • Houses did not have indoor toilets

    • Numerous apartments would share one outside toilet

    • The outside toilet often overflowed

• Rookeries could also contain lodging houses

  • Lodging houses are sometimes called ‘doss’ houses

  • Lodging houses offered people only a bed to sleep in

    • The landlord rented the bed out for eight-hour periods ensuring they gained the maximum amount of rent for the bed

  • Conditions in lodging houses were poor

    • Lodging houses attracted rats

    • Diseases spread quickly in lodging houses due to poor hygiene and lack of cleanliness

  • Whitechapel had over 200 lodging houses

    • There was a large rookery of lodging houses in Flower and Dean Street

    • Roughly a quarter of the population of Whitechapel lived in lodging houses

The Whitechapel Workhouse and the Casual Ward

• Workhouses offered shelter and food

  • The government developed the idea of workhouses in the early nineteenth century

  • Used by the poor, the sick, the disabled and orphans

• The workhouse residents had to provide labour in return for their food and shelter

  • This work kept the running costs of the workhouse down

  • Residents had to do tough manual labour This attempted to make the workhouse a last resort for the poor

    • This attempted to make the workhouse a last resort for the poor

• The owners of the workhouse separated families and punished them if they attempted to stay together

• Vagrants, also known as the ‘idle’ poor, stayed in ‘Casual Wards’

  • The Casual Ward provided the most basic accommodation at a lower standard than the rest of the workhouse

  • People could only stay in the Casual Ward for a night

  • The owners believed that keeping vagrants with other residents would encourage laziness in the workhouse

• Whitechapel’s workhouse was located on South Grove

  • It was built in 1871 and could hold up to 800 residents

The Peabody Estate

• The government attempted to improve the housing in Whitechapel

  • In 1875, the government introduced the Artisans’ Dwellings Act

  • The Act aimed to destroy substandard housing

    • The Metropolitan Board of Works, a government organisation, purchased an area on Royal Mint Street in Whitechapel

    • Royal Mint Street contained a high number of poor-quality lodging houses, which the government destroyed

    • George Peabody, a wealthy American businessman, purchased the land in 1879

• In 1881, the Peabody Estate opened

  • George Peabody designed the housing estate

  • Peabody created 286 flats

• The Peabody Estate provided much better conditions for Whitechapel

  • The Peabody Estate provided indoor toilets

    • Peabody built the toilets by the staircases

    • Two flats shared one toilet

  • Peabody set the rent for three shillings a week for a one-room flat and six shillings for a three-room flat

    • The average worker’s weekly salary in the nineteenth century was around 22 shillings

    • Some landlords charged the poorer people in Whitechapel around a third of their salary on rent