----~------.--- -

ASPECTS OF SOCIAL DEPRIVATION IN WHITECHAPEL

IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY

by

RAYMOND SIBLEY, B.A.

A Master's Thesis

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the award of

Master of Arts of the Loughborough University of Technology

September, 1977

Supervisor: I.J.E. Keil, B.A., Ph.D., Department of Economics

CS> Raymond Sibley, 1977 CONTENTS

Page No.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

INTRODUCTION 1

ChaEter No.

1 EAST LONDON, 1888 6

2 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT 22

3 HOUSING 44

4 SANITATION 66

5 VOLUNTARY BODIES 82

6 METROPOLITAN POLICE 103

7 CONCLUSION 128

Appendix A THE PERIOD OF THE MURDERS 146

Appendix B THE WHlTECHAPEL UNION 164

BIBLIOGRAPHY 169

between pages

1 Tower Hamlets iii - 1

2 Whitechapel (The Area of the Crimes) 5 - 6

3 Mitre Square (The Murder of Catherine • Eddowes) 155 - 156 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe a great debt to my supervisor, Dr. I.J.E. Keil, for his wise and kindly guidance, his clear and discerning criticism and for many suggestions based on his extensive knowledge of source material.

The staffs of various institutions have given assistance and they are acknowledged either in the bibliography, together with a list of the kind of material provided, or in footnotes at an appropriate point in the text.

I am grateful to Mrs. Gloria Brentnall for her typing expertise and her experience of this kind of work, which has proved of considerable value in dealing with inconsistencies in presentation.

My final acknowledgement is to my wife for her tolerance and patience throughout the period of study, for a variety of help willingly given and for her constant encouragement.

iii. Tower Hamlets

- ONI. MILE. _

SllortEl>lTCJI

CllY

LONDON

CrrtEENWIUI

Wk,l~th"pel Uni""" $howl'\ above C<5 on..

ra.:Jistr"tion di ... t .. icJs of Tow~r H",,,,,lets Sc.hool Boo.rcl

Sp"tto\fiddS,

Whitech",~1 a.nd G-oodmo.n '5 gelcls. INTRODUCTION

This study looks at the effect of a series of murders on the socially deprived district of IVhitechapel. The crimes received such publicity that the conditions, already known to some, were soon (1) revealed to a wider range of people. In the main, the study will be concerned with the last months of 1888, in the area between

Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane, bounded to the north by Hanbury

Street and to the south by IVhitechapel Road, containing such districts as Dorset Street, Fashion Street, Flower and Dean Street,

Thrawl Street and their attendant alleys and courts.

An initial description of the area deals in general with its physical, social and economic environment. Two pOints have to be stressed. Firstly, the misery, destitution and seeming falalism of East Londoners; secondly, the apparent apathy of some of the authorities to, and the ignorance among the general public oi, the problems of the area.

1. Most newspapers and periodicals had heavy coverage of the IVhite­ chapel murders throughout the last four months of 1888. There was constant repetition of reports and inquests of similar content. Leading articles on the crimes appeared in The Times on 10th September, p.9; 19th September, p.7; 27th September, p.7; 1st October, p.9; 12th October, p.7; 10th November, p.ll. Many other reports were in The Times and are all listed in the Index to The Times for that period. The Pall Mall Gazette also gave saturation coverage. All the material and articles are listed in the Index to The Pall Mall Gazette for that period. The Illustrated Police News and Weekly Record had a report on the crimes in every issue from 8th September to 8th December inclusive. See also The Daily Telegraph, The Daily News, The Penny Illustrated Newspaper, The Star and The Daily Chronicle, all of which had continual commentaries on the crimes and also on the inquests, 3rd, 4th, 11th 13th, 14th, 18th, 20th, 24th and 27th September, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 12th and 24 t 11 October and 13th November.

1. It is a common view that at the time of 'Jack the Ripper'

Whitechapel was an area of almost total neglect and had been so for many years. Criminologists who have written about the crimes and

the area tend to perpetuate this overall impression, usually because

their observations are limited to considerations of motive, method or identity. Their background material sometimes depends On selected examples of destitution and degradation in Whitechapel life, often with passing reference to well-known figures like Dr. Barnado,

William Booth and Canon Barnett. It is essential, therefore, to correct and modify this view, so that the \vhi techapel murders may be seen in a more realistic setting.

In the period from August to November, 1888, the pattern of life in East London underwent some changes. A series of murders perpetrated by 'Jack the Ripper', on destitute Whitechapel prostitutes, not only baffled the police and inflamed public opinion, but eventually helped to effect the resignation of Sir Charles Warren (Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police) and almost forced the resignation of Henry

Matthews (the Home Secretary). The murders were also the subject of a special Cabinet Meeting called by the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, after pressure for action from Queen Victoria.(l)

These crimes must be taken severally and jointly to illustrate the change in the climate of opinion during the period of the murders, and the mounting pressure for the reform of the East End. Sir

Melvil1e MacNaghten (Head of C. LD., 1903-1913) wrote in his memoirs,

1. G.E. Buckle, The Letters of Queen Victoria 1886-1901, Third Series, Vo1.1 (John Murray), 1930, p.447.

2. - --~ ------_. -

"No one who was living in London that Autumn will forget the terror created by these murdersH~ It was at this time, when the squalid conditions were publicly exposed, that the attitude of sympathy and

the feeling for reform was most keen. George Bernard Shaw in a

letter to The Star wrote, tlWhilst we conventional Social Democrats were wasting our time on education~ agitation, and organisation, some independent genius has taken the matter in hand, and by simply murdering and disembowelling four women, converted the proprietary

." Cl) press to an inept sor t 0 f commun1sm. A Daily Telegraph editorial commented on the murder on 8th September of Annie Chapman that the victim "will effect in one way what fifty Secretaries of

Sta te could never accomplish".

The murderer and the murders need be considered only as far as they influenced events connected with social problems. Much, therefore, must be excluded. Theories on the identity of the anonymous killer; an analysiS of his possible motives; a consider- ation of his correspondence; or an examination of his psychopathic character, cannot be included, except where such a reference is directly relevant.

There are strong reasons for this research. It gives an insight into the difficulties of social reformers, at an extreme and concentrated level. The area itself is sufficient. It was as if every problem connected with poverty, unemployment, homeless- ness, low wages, crime, violence, drunkenness and prostitution had

1. 24th September, 1888.

3. been collated, intensified and aggravated and put within a small

geographical framework to fester; an example of wholesale

destitution built up by in-breeding and total neglect. No normal

methods of social reform seemed quick or adequate enough to alleviate

the situation.

An impression is formed of some Victorian standards, mentalities

and methods of reform. Much can be learned from the ways in which

the Victorians attempted to handle problems which they often linked

with their own feelings of guilt. (1)

There were many varied agencies of social control at this time,

not only the government but in some Situations the police. Other

'socialising agencies' such as churches, education and poor relief were

influential as were those concerned with environmental regulations

like housing and sanitation.

It is impossible to separate the murders from the environment

in which they were committed. Possibly this unity points to a . (2) reform motIve, for Bernard Shaw was not alone in contrasting the

conditions before and after the coming of 'Jack the Ripper' in

Whitechapel. In The Lancet it was written that the murders "served

a good purpose to awaken the public conscience", and it also pointed

out that the crimes had been committed in the precise districts in

1. See G. Stedman Jones, Outcast London (C1arendon Press), 1971; Peregrine Books, 1976, pp. 290-295.

2. T. Cu1len, Autumn of Terror (Fontana Books edition), 1966, pp.210-2ll and 243-245.

4. which sanitary reformers had asked for action.(l) The Reverend

Samuel Barnett, Warden of Toynbee lIall (and Vicar of St. Judes,

Whi techapel), said that, "The Whitechapel horrors will not be in vain if at last the public conscience awakes to consider the life (2) which these horrors reveal". His wife, a devoted social worker, went further. She believed that the murders had been a powerful stimulus for housing reform. Afterwards, she wrote theatrically but sincerely, "Verily, it was the cruxifixion of these poor lost souls which saved the district". (3)

1. The Lancet, 6th October, 1888, p.683, and 13th October, 1888, p.728.

2. Letter to The Times, 19th September, 1888.

3. Mrs. 11.0. Barnett, Canon Barnett: lIis Life, Work and Friends (John Murray), 1921, p,696.

5. The Area of the Crimes I Y+ MIl.. f

Iil .... It " R r·0 0 T S S 'E I> 'a. s " .,. '"'l

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POSITION OF MPlRTAA TIlRNE R '5 BDIf'(. M"IR'I' NICHOu.s' 801>'1'. ANNII< C.IIAPMI\NS 801>'(.

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L-ON.DON HOSPITAl.. SPITAlFIEUS MARKET. AL-IXrATE. STAnoN. PUSL.IC BATHS AN!> WASH HOOSES. BOAR!> OF WORKS llE:Po-r: PROv'/bENe,;; NICcttr REFOC,,,,.

EAST LONbt>N TIJE:IITRri. (foRM'-RL." (F(INCH(II~. CHAPTER 1

EAST LONDON, 1888

In the 1880s, Whitechapel was one of the most squalid areas of the East End, and exemplified the worst features of the slums. Apart from the main roads (Brick Lane, Commercial Street, Hanbury Street,

Whitechapel Road, Commercial Road) which were reasonably well-kept, there were numerous side-roads, alleys and courts packed with lodging-houses and shops. F.W. Goddard, Chief Surveyor to the

Metropoli tan Board of Works, described some of the courts as "very bad indeed" and "the most horrible you could possibly imagine" (1)

He calculated that the total value of the ground materials of one court, even at a most generous estimate, would not fetch fifty pounds, even though it contained six houses~

The situation appeared to be statiC, for the area had established a notorious reputation since before the time of Dickens. In 1861,

Hollingshead wrote, "Whitechapel may not be the worst of the many districts in this quarter, but it is undoubtedly bad enough.

Taking the broad road from Aldgate Church to Old Whitechapel Church - a thoroughfare in some parts like the high street of an old-fashioned country town, you may pass on either side almost twenty narrow avenues, leading to thousands of closely-packed nests, full to over­ flowing with dirt, misery and rags". (2) Nearly thirty years after

1. He commented on the condition of these courts and tenements in his evidence on 9th March, 1882, before the Select Committee on Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement; Questions 511, 512 and 520-524.

2. J. Hollingshead, Ragged London, 1861, p.79.

6. this, Charles Booth described the area as "vicious and semi- criminal", and Mrs. Barnett commented, "None of these courts had roads. In some the houses were three-storeys high and hardly six feet apart; the sanitary accommodation being pits in the cellars;

in other courts the houses were lower, wooden and dilapida tect, a standpipe at the end providing the only water. Each chamber was the home of a family who sometimes owned their indescribable furniture, but in most cases the rooms were let out furnished for eightpence a night; a bad system which lent itself to every form of evil. In many instances broken windows had been repaired with paper and rags,

the banisters had been used for firewood, and the paper hung from

the walls which were the residence of countless vermin. n( 1)

Most people rented either a room or a bed in a lodging-house,

but these houses were usually filthy as well as overcrowded, and sometimes as many as ninety lived in three rooms of a lodging-house.

Many of these houses were brothels for locals, soldiers and

. (2) sa11ors.

Although unscrupulous landlords exploited the conditions, others were often too frightened of being attacked to collect rents. These

properties deteriorated even more rapidly, and provided a setting in

which crime flourished. The 'rookeries' were protected by a maze

of alleyways through which the police dared not penetrate except in

( 3) force.

1. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., pp.73-74.

2. Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes (RCHWC), 1885, Questions 5099-5305.

3. J.J. Tobias, Crime and Industrial Society in the Nineteenth Century (Pelican), 1972, pp. 148-151.

7. By far the worst depressed and most lawless area was that found between Hanbury Street and Whitechapel Road bounded to the east by Brick Lane, and to the west by Commercial Street and those streets leading off it. Four of the most notorious and degenerate were Flower and Dean Street, Fashion Street, Thrawl Street, Dorset

Street and their attendant alleys and courts. When Charles Booth drew up his poverty Maps of London in 1889, he ringed this area in black. He noted that the destitutes seemed to be drawn to this district of Spitalfields in the Union of Whitechapel. The sleeping outdoors of verminous destitutes was, Booth found, a common feature of Spitalfields and Whitechapel, along with broken windows, choked drains and sounds of brutal ill-treatment of women.(l) Strangely enough, the most vicious and savage husband would be forgiven by neighbours for the ill-treatment of a dead wife if he gave her a good funera 1. Such funerals gave great pleasure to all, and the dying were often comforted and touched by preparations to give them wreaths and flowers of quality. (2) Indeed, among the impoverished life-styles of the East Enders were some strange and often inexplic­ able standards of behaviour.(3)

The plight of the East Enders was well-known. Wri ters, social reformers and general critics had, for some years, put the conditions in great detai 1. Reports and investigations by committees and individuals, particularly on sanitation and health, had been presented

1. C. Booth, Life and Labour of the People in London (Macmillan), 1904, 3rd Series, Vol.2, p.244. Also, RCHWC, op. cit., Minutes of Evidence, Qs.5112-5116. 2. C. Booth, op. cit., pp. 245-246. 3. On the same subject, Brian Harrison comments that disease, disaster and death fascinate those unable to avoid any of the three for long, and drab lives acquire dignity in death (Drink and the Victorians (Faber), 1971, I 13).

8. in abundance. A great deal had been left to charities and phil-

anthropists. Until Charles Booth began his systematic survey of

conditions by street and house, most documents before had tended to

be vague, descriptive and distant. The problem was vast and reform

attempts seemed to be inadequate and slow, conducted by a few people

who cared, against a mass of others who appeared indifferent and

apathetic.(l)

Sanitation throughout England was far from satisfactory during

this period, but in the East End (particularly the Thrawl Street

area)(2) sanitary arrangements were primitive and squalid. Houses

often backed directly on to other houses and it was Common for

sewage to seep into basements. Diphtheria and typhoid fever

invariably followed. Single lavatories served many homes. . The

contents of chamber-pots were sometimes thrown into the streets. (3)

Building regulations were often ignored so that houses were occasionally built over decaying rubbish tips. Rats roamed around freely. Until the Disused Burial Grounds Act of 1888, many old churchyards were used for building. It was not just in the East End that sanitation was inadequate, for London as a whole suffered from sewer stench often combined with srnok~-laden fogs and in many poor areas from contaminated water (diluted sewage).

1. See A.S. Wohl, The Bitter Cry of Outcast London, International Social History Review, Vol.13, 1968-9, pp.19O-19l.

2. D. McCormick, The Identity of Jack the Ripper (Jarrolds), 1959, pp.22-23.

3. RCHWC, op. cH., Q.5125. They were often kept full and unemptied, Q.5095.

9. As a result, infant mortality was high, the streets had about them the smell of decomposition and bodies were often carelessly buried in old churchyards near to crowded dwellings. Drinking water was taken from sources contaminated with drainwater and 0) sewage.

Disease and deficiency in physique were rife, particularly among weavers, milliners and dressmakers, most of whom worked up to sixteen hours a day. Tailors and printers in London suffered double the death-rate of agricultural workers of a similar age.

There were other factors. "Three-quarters of the London bakers at that time sold under-price bread by the expedient of adulterating the flour with alum, soap, pearl ashes, chalk, Derbyshire stone-dust, and organic dirt of a more beastly kind; working people had to accept this bread without complaint as they could seldom save enough money to make cash purchases and were supplied on a weekly credit, repaid from their weekly wage. II (2)

The pressure of population was aggravated by migration from the provinces; refugees thronged to London from Europe and Ireland, and, in addition, many houses had been destroyed to make room for docks, railways and roads. (3) This caused an influx of extra workers in.. to East London, in particular, who crowded with the evicted into already congested houses.

1. The Lancet, 27th January, 1883, p.160.

2. R. Sinclair, East London (Robert Hale), 1950, pp.25D-251.

3. RCHWC, op. cit., Q.9577; also Qs.5308-5314.

10. Thousands of foreigners lived in the East End, unchecked by the authorities. Many of these were Polish and Russian Jews, although there had long been poor Jews around the Aldgate district, even before the flight from the pogroms. The assassination of Czar

Alexander 11 in 1881 had been fOllowed by a wave of attacks on the

Jews in the south-western provinces of the Russian Empire. The

, ,(1) May Laws followed in 1882 with further pogroms in South Russia.

The outbreaks of violence and the 'May Laws' gave stimulus to emigrations of Jews in 1881 and 1882, which slackened off by 1883.

Irish immigrants also arrived, bringing cholera, lice and illiteracy; they were the residue of those seeking passage to a free America but

( 2) could not get there. There were also a number of Chinese and

Lascars. The British had a strong sense of sympathy for Polish refugees from tryanny. Many Russians had flocked into the East End and formed clubs of their own, Some of which were tight political organisations. Britain had passed no repressive measures against

Anarchists, as many European countries had done since the beginning of the 1880s, so that London became a magnet for many of them.

Nihilists and Anarchists(3l included some known criminals and even criminal lunatics. The circulation of propaganda was well-organised.

East London, packed and bursting, was a housing refuge for foreigners who had become marked men in their own countries.

1. Temporary orders concerning Jews. They attacked the economic life of the Jews; for example, Jews were prohibited from any business activities on Sundays or Christian holidays. Mobility was also restricted. See Vivian Lipman, A Century of Social Service 1859 - 1959, The History of the Jewish Board of Guardians (Routledge and Kegan Paul), 1959, pp.77-78.

2. R. Sinclair, op. cit., p.263.

3. Margaret Prothero in The History of the C.l.D. at Scotland Yard makes several references to the activity of Anarchists and Nihilists in East London among the poorer classes at this time.

11. There were several well-defined intensely Jewish districts.

Two of these fall within the area we are considering: the first district was contained by Houndsditch and Commercial Street and

Whitechapel High Street and Whites Row; the second, the triangle formed by Commercial Street, Old Montague Street and Hanbury Street.

Huge numbers of Jews arrived in London in a pitiable and more or less destitute condition. They were degraded alike in morals and

. (1) p h ySlque. In addition to 60,000 foreign Jews, there were another 40,000 established Jews living in the East End, making a roughly estimated total of 100,000,(2) from a population of 900,000.

There was little manufacturing industry of any importance(3) in the Whitechapel area and what casual work there was available was poorly paid. According to the 1891 Census figures, the main occupations for men in East London were Transport and Storage

(18.09%), Retail and Distribution (8.70%), Miscellaneous Labour

(7.81%), Wood and Furniture (7.37%), Boot and Shoe Trade (4.56%) and the Clothing Trade (4.57%). (4)

Work had been more difficult to find since the closure of the

London shipyards in the l860s. The demand for dock labour in

Whitechapel was also curtailed by the opening of other dock systems

1. See Select Committee of the House of Lords on Poor Law Relief, 1888, Qs.2445-2448.

2. C. Russell and H.S. Lewis, The Jew in London (Fisher and Unwin), 1901, pp.2-12.

3. Charles Booth, Paper to the Royal Statistical SOCiety, June, 1887, on Tower Hamlets (School Board Division), Journal of the Royal Statistical SOCiety, Vol.50, p.358.

4. See also Appendix B, pp.165-l66 and Chapter 2, pp.34-36.

12. ---- ~------~------

further downstream. Casual employment was available for labourers, porters, stall-keepers, shoe-blacks and crossing-sweepers, but the average rate of pay was about three shillings and sixpence for a ten-hour day. In the cramped and crowded tenements, sweating industries such as match-making and rabbit-fur pulling were carried (1) on. It was not unusual for girls to stitch up fashionable dresses sixteen hours a day for less than one penny an hour.

Whitechapel and district had many abattoirs. This trade offered work, particularly in Butcher's Row, Aldgate, where herds of cattle were brutally ill-treated and goaded on their way to slaughter and the demand for meat was so heavy that often killing was carried on throughout the night, and sometimes in the streets and open shops during the day, in full view of the public. Canon Barnett, the

Vicar of St. Judes, Whi techape 1 , wrote a letter to The Times(2) maintaining that such sights tended to brutalise the natures of onlookers. A constable on patrol describes an infuriated bull

"escaped from the horrors of a local slaughter-house; careering down the High Street, followed at a respectful distance by two grimy-looking butchers, who with their pole-axes and knives, looked almost as awe-inspiring as the bull".(3) The need for meat was intensified by the presence of a number of Jews in the area and the consequent preparation of kosher meat.

1. RCHWC, 1884-5, Firs t Report, Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5047. See also C. Booth, op. cit., 1st Series, Vol.4, pp.328-427.

2. 19th September, 1888. See also Mrs. H.O. Barnett, cp. cit., p.197 and p.695.

3. B. Leeson, Lost London (Stanley Paul), 1934, pp.62-63.

13. In Whitechapel, work was also available as sackmakers, rope- makers, match-workers, rabbit-pullers, fur-workers, brushmakers and 0) dock labourers. Sackmakers were paid a farthing per sack, and matchbox makers received from 2!d. to 3~d. a gross, the latter having to provide their own fire to dry the -boxes, as well as paste and string. Women employed as shirt-finishers earned four shillings a week (6 x 8d.l. Umbrella silk makers received about fourteen shillings a week for 56 hours work. Cigarette-makers could average

1,000-1,5000 cigarettes in a day, for which men were paid three shillings per thousand, and women one shilling and ninepence per

( 2) thousand.

In the main, however, too many people were available for too few jobs and wages in Whi techapel were insufficient to sustain

'f (3) l 1 e. Foreign labour influenced the situation. In the East

End, coat-making was a purely .Jewish industry, and at the 1891

Census, one-third of the total male Russians and Poles (over ten years of age) were employed in the tailoring industry. The boot trade was the second in importance of the Jewish industries. A fair proportion of foreign Jews were also to be found in cabinet- making, cigar and cigarette-making, furriery, tin-working and street- . (4) selllng.

1. G. Stedman Jones, Outcast London (Clarendon), 1971, p.171.

2. See C. Booth, op. cit., 1st Series, Vol.4, Poverty - pp.234, 259, 260, 268, 269, 281 and 286.

3. RCHWC, op. cit., Minutes of Evidence, Qs.5223-5235.

4. C. Russell and H.S. Lewis, op. cit., pp.66-83.

14. For women in Whitechapel, the normal opportunities of employment were less. The destitution of the menfolk forced many women and often the children to work at home. The 'domestic system' of work was still widespread and associated with sweated trades such as making matchboxes or artificial flowers. Domestic service offered little chance of escape, "The best domestic positions to which the rough children of the slums could aspire were in the East London homes of the poorest tradesmen or of ambitious artisans, which yielded no training, no wrltten. reference of any value ....." (1)

Illiteracy prevented many boys from taking up apprenticeships or becoming clerks.

Many of the men lucky enough to be in casual work began at five in the morning. just as the public-houses were opening. They remained open until half an hour after midnight (Refreshment Houses

Act, 1865). These workmen were legitimate customers who entered the pubs early, but later the numbers were swollen by thieves and pickpockets. At the end of the working day, tired workmen joined the crowded bars.

Singing in public-houses, where chairs and tables were usually ( 2) bolted to the floor, ' was a popular enjoyment. The eus tamers J jammed together, roared out choruses of traditional songs, followed by many less traditional songs of a more robust and pornographic nature. When the bars closed, many did not go to their homes or

1. R. Sinclair, op. cit., pp.248-249. See also Select Committee of the House of Lords on Poor Law Relief, 1888, Qs.4606-4607.

2. W. Potter, Thomas Jackson of Whitechape1 (Working Lads Institute), 1929, p.57. See also Report of the Medical Officer of Health (Whitechapo1), 1888-1889).

15. shelters. Considerable visiting was done in the early hours, particularly by those in destitute circumstances. This became evident when investigations were made into the 'Jack the Ripper' (1) murders. Many gave evidence of nightly ramblings which seemed

to have no logical explanation, unless in their depressed condition, night and day, and other divisions, had lost their meaning. Those

in regular work, however, seemed to sleep in a state of near exhaustion.

Many women spent their time in the public-houses, children played in the sawdust of the public bar; savage fighting often broke (2) out among the women and continued to the limit 'of endurance.

Soldiers from the garrison at the Tower of London frequented the

East End public-houses, but for the prostitutes who used these

taverns for trade purposes, the seamen with money after a voyage, were a more attractive proposition. The last hour before closing time at the weekends was a period of frenzied drinking, during which the most wretched prostitutes combed the taverns in desperation, and (3) the trade in young girls took place.

Prostitutes who operated from the public-houses battened on sailors, soldiers and foreigners as well as locals. They burned out early in life, declined quickly until they reached the depths of selling themselves for the fourpence a night required to pay for

1. See also pp.22-23.

2. B. Leeson, op. cit., pp.lIB-119.

3. D. McCormick, The Identity of Jack the Ripper (Jarrolds), 1959, p.14.

16. (1) a bed in a doss-house. Many of the prostitutes who were

destitute slept outside. Some mothers in crowded tenements turned

children into the streets early in the evening until after midnight so the room could be let for immoral purposes. These wretched

( 2) children often stayed out if they discovered some other shelter.

Incest was common in the 'rookeries', marriage was exceptional and drunkenness was regarded by most observers as a necessity to endure

life.

On Saturday nights, the music-halls were filled with riotous audiences enjoying the performances. As a rule, they provided amusement from about 7.30 in the evening until after midnight for ( 3) an entrance charge of threepence. Sometimes the entertainment among the audiences rivalled that provided on the stage, for there was much fighting and general rowdyism. Popular foods were consumed during the acts by the audience and alcoholic drinks were taken in large quantities.

In an area where poverty was acute, many pawnshops were to be found in the Side-streets, together with 'tally-shops' where credit could be obtained. Although drink gave some respite from the miserable depressed way of life many suffered, it often led to brawling and violence. Coalmen living in 'Shovel Alleyt were known to fight viciously, armed with shovels, usually involving severe

1. 'Jack the Ripper' chose his victims from this class. See also RCHWC, op; cit., Q.5099.

2. A.S. Wohl, op. cit., pp.207-209.

3. See also pp.31-32. Music-halls were very popular and provided a very small but important segment of a life-style which was in the main miserable and bleak.

17. injuries or mutilations. Women also fought, often stripped to the waist for this purpose. These displays of violence were attended by mixed crowds, including very young children. (1)

Despite the number of deaths from murders, violence and natural causes, there was no mortuary in East London in 1888 with adequate facilities. In the Whitechapel district, bodies were often placed (2) in a shed behind the workhouse in Old Montague Street. Post- mortem examinations were performed in this shed, described in the

Daily Telegraph as "a disgraceful hole-and-corner hovel".(3) This and other improvised mortuaries in the East End were severely condemned by doctors at the time of the 'Jack the Ripper' murders, when mortuaries received considerable attention from critics.(4)

Added to the general overcrowding and the squalid sanitation, was a poor street lighting system. Main thoroughfares like

Commercial Road had gas-lamps but even these were about a furlong apart. Side-streets, alleys and courts were in complete darkness and it was dangerous to walk them at night, owing to the excessive amount of violence and crime.

Public interest in the slums in general was heightened by the publishing, in October, 1883, of a twenty-page pamphlet, "The Bitter

Cry of Outcast London", sub-titled "An Inquiry into the Condition of

1. B. Leeson, op. cit., p.30.

2. See The Lancet, 27th October, 1888; also the Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Whi techapel (1888); and W. Dew, I Caught Crippen (Blackie), 1938, p.106.

3. Daily Telegraph, 3rd and 24th September, 1888.

4. See also pp.73-7c

18. (1) the Abject Poor". It was published anonymously and cost one penny. Its impact was considorablo. Before this publication, many writers had described the miserable conditions of the poor, commenting in particular upon the streets, courts and alleys, but never venturing to leave tho slum streets to describe the interior of the working-class houses. Public attention seemed to be totally concerned with sewers, drains, cesspools and cemetaries. The situation had been thoroughly denounced many times, but little more than this was done. Overcrowding was intense and families of all ages and both sexes were herded together in wretched dwellings along wi th the sick and the dead. (2) Women gave birth in these conditions and incest was common.

In "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London", it stated, "No form of

tl vice or sexuality causes surpise or attracts attention • Lord

Shaftesbury, giving evidence to the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, told of ten year old children trying to have sexual connection in imitation of their parents. (3)

The Dorset Street area contained the worst 'rookeries' in

Whitechapel and housed a large lawless element. The in ha b i tan ts were hostile to the police in many cases, and if not that, were

1. It is usually attribted either to Andrew Mearns or William Preston, both Congregational ministers. Mearns admitted being the author, in answer to questions by the Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes (Questions 5346 and 5541), and in Contemporary Review (December, 1883, p.933) wrote that he was helped by the Reverend James Munro and the Reverend W.C. preston.

2. RCHWC, op. cit., First Report, Minutes of Evidence, Qs.4988-4989.

3. RCHWC, op. cit., !. rst Report, pp.17-l8.

19. uneo-operative. Brothels were operated in the meaner streets unchecked, and on and around these premises robberies with violence , 0) were frequent and usually uninvestigated.

Oxford and Cambridge graduates doing settlement work in the

East End, from 'roynbee Hall, patrolled these reeking courtyards and doss-houses and found men and women sleeping outside in alleys, passages and under carts. Dr. Barnado was at this time combing the East End for waifs and he visited some of the worst doss-houses (2) and slums. They all saw life at a raw level. Barnado devoted his life to homeless children, and social welfare received a great

( 3) stimulus from the example of Arnold Toynbee (the Balliol tutor who lived in Whitechapel and died at thirty-one), after whom Toynbee

Hall was named. This settlement knew many of the social workers (4) who contributed to Charles Booth's survey.

Octavia Hill, usually considered to be a very important figure in housing reform, was a frequent visitor to Toynbee Hall and a close friend of both the Warden, Canon Barnett, and his wife, Henrietta.

However, Anthony S. Wohl makes the point that "Octavia Hill's place in the history of housing reform is most significant, for it reveals not only the inability of reformers of the period to grasp the complexity and size of the housing problem at a time when the

1. C. Booth, op. cit., Third Series, Vol.2, p.245.

2. See also, p.96. Jack l,ondon comments on Dr. Barnado in The people of the Abyss (Garrett Press edition, New York, 1970; photo-reprint of Macmillan, 1903), pp.309-31O.

3. See also pp.83-85.

4. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., pp.444-446.

20. population of London was increasing by over twenty per cent each decade, but also their insistence that character was, even more than environment and certainly more than economic and social factors, responsible for poverty, uncleanliness and overcrowding". (1)

By the end of 1888, people throughout England were not only aware of the conditions in East London, but were strongly sympathetic and shocked by the plight of those living there. The horrors of the 'Jack the Ripper' murders were given extensive and sensational publicity, particularly during the autumn from August to November: the period of the murders. This concentration of interest spurred the agitation for social improvements. The Victorians were having . (2) twinges of conSClenC8. Almost immediately, an impetus was given to the proposals of the reformers . As Canon Barnett of Toynbee Hall remarked, .. Th e sense of sin h as b een t h e startlng., pOlnt of progress .. . (3)

1. A.S. Wohl, op. cit., p.201.

2. See also p.107 and pp.130-132.

3. B. Webb, My Apprenticeship (Longmans), 1926, p.155 and pp.180-182.

21. CHAPTER 2

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

A statement of the economic basis of Whitechape1 in general

terms requires a consideration of the population and employment

opportunities for men, women and children; social amenities and

entertainments; and the contributions of education and religion.

Statistics alone may be misleading when attempting to assess

the nature of the Whitechape1 area; a point made by Mr. William

Valiance, Clerk to the Whitechapel Union, when giving evidence before

the Select Committee of the House of Lords on poor Law Relief (1888).

He warned against ,the temptation to draw easy conclusions regarding

areas which appeared to be similar, saying that one could not "fairly

compare one parish or district with another by population, but you

must take the character of the district". (1)

Two facts which emerged from the evidence given at the inquests

on the murder Victims, revealed the unusual pattern of life in the

character of the Whi techape1 district. The first was that many

women thought nothing of paying visits and calling on each other at

any time between midnight and four in the mOrning;(2) the second,

was tha t a cry of "Murder:" coming from the darkened courts, gave no

cause for alarm or investigation, and was apparently ignored by those

1. He was referring to the fact that Whitechapel had been c0mpared with paddington on the grounds that they had similar figures for total population. Q.4703, 25th June, 1888.

2. S. Sitwell, For want of the Golden City (Thames and Hudson), 1973, pp.244-5.

22. still awake and others prowling about outside.(1)

The influence of the 'Ripper' murders on the life-styles in

Whitechapel was immediate, for after the murder of Mary Ann Nicho11s,

on 31st AUgust,(2) women locked themselves in at night. Strangely

'enough, women whose lives were never in any danger showed far more

fear than prostitutes who never knew when they went out at night

whether they might be attacked. Tradesmen did brisk business in

making homes secure, repairing doors and windows and fitting new

Courts were lighted by feeble and inadequate locks and bolts. (3) lanterns.

Tho terror was contagious and too much for the overwrought

nerves of many women and children who would never venture out at

night. Mothers became actutely anxious for their daughters, especially those whose work compelled them to travel home in the

darkness; husbands worried about wives and young men for their many of them girls. Children were easily and often scared; (4) The panic reached its highest pitch became prone to nightmares.

amongst the foreign element, particularly when the slaughter reached

its climax in a district infested with police officers, into which

the murderer could seemingly enter and escape at will.(5)

1. This night movement was noted much later by H. Fletcher Moulton when writing about Whitechapel and the Steinie Morrison trial in 1911. See J.H. Hodge (ed.), Famous Trials, Vol. III (penguin), 1950, pp.152-153. 2. See Appendix A, pp.147-149. 3. W. Dew, op. cit., p.l09. 4. Not only in Whitechapel. See F. Thompson, Lark Rise to Candle ford (O.U.P.), 1954, pp.Go-GI. 5. W. Dew, op. cit., pp.95-105.

23. A Mrs. Sodeaux committed suicide at her house, 65, Hanbury

Street, which was only a short distance from 29, Hanbury Street,

outside which Annie Chapman was murdered. Her relatives said she

had been depressed and agitated by the series of 'Ripper' crimes. (1)

The murders had added another dimension to the established

characteristics of Whitechapel which Charles Booth had described

hitherto as "This excitment of life which can accept murder as a.

dramatic incident, and drunkenness as the buffoonery of the stage". (2)

During the years immediately preceding the murders, conditions

in Whitechapel became acute, especially during the winters, (3)

particularly that of 1885-6 which was the coldest for thirty years. (4)

The very poor slept anywhere they could find, but took advantage of

the fine summer of Jubilee Year, 1887, to camp out in Trafalgar

Square and St. James's Park. ( 5)

Despite the conditions in Whitechapel, Booth's investigators

commented on the air of cheerfulness even in areas like Paternoster

Row and Hanbury Street, where the Relieving Officer was particularly

1. Reported in the Evening News, 11th October, 1888.

2. C. Booth, op. cit., First Series, Vol.l, Poverty, p.GG.

3. The situation had not changed since 1868, when Brooke Lambert, the Vicar of St. Marks, Whitechapel, said the clergy dreaded the return of winters like an intermittent fever, East London pauperism, 1868, pp.6-ll. 4. Average 36.80 Fahrenheit for December, January and February, Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vo!. 69, 1943, London, 1875-1900. 5. D. Rumbelow, The Complete Jack the Ripper (W.H. AlIen), 1975, p.49, and C. Pulling, Mr. Punch and the Police (Butterworths), 1964, p.ll7.

24. active • Distress was often aggravated by the man of a foreign family falling ill shortly after leaving the Continent. Family ties were sometimes strong. A typical example is of a mother in

Fort Street refusing to allow the Relieving Officer to admit three

. (1) of her children despite very severe hardsh,p.

Charles Booth wrote in Life and Labour of the People in London of this same area between Middlesex Street (Petticoat Lane) and

Brick Lane, where stairways and corners were occupied nightly by those without any other shelter, "So lurid and intense is the light which murderous outrage has lately thrown on these quarters, that the grey tones of the ordinary picture become invisible". (2) This district of tlmurderous outrage" had been often referred to by

Canon Barnett as "the evil quarter-mile".

The crimes began an almost immediate exploration into the social problems of Whitechapel, notably by Bernard Shaw in The Star on (3) 24th September. However, apart from this general focus on poverty, vice, deprivation and foreign immigration, many more people became aware of the realities and harshness of life in the slums, in terms they could understand. The poorer classes were often so desperately hungry that they bought the intestines of slaughtered animals (those parts normally discarded by butchers) and fried them into a crisp or hard state to make them less revolting to eat.(4)

1. Booth Notebook, Third Series, Vol.7, Group B, 343, p.25.

2. C. Booth, op. cit., First Series, Vol.l, Poverty, p.68.

3. Canon Barnett's letters to The Times, elsewhere quoted, were published on 19th and 29th September.

4. C. Wilson, A Casebook of Murder (Mayflower edition), 1971, p~123.

25. Unpleasant though these details may have been to those who learned about them, little of a constructive nature seemed to follow the sympathy or interest aroused, for similar conditions were still in evidence in 1902. In that year, the writer Jack

London recalled the behaviour of men who had been unable to gain en try to Whitechapel Workhouse because it was full, and had to search the roads for scraps to eat. "From the slimy, spittle- drenched sidewalk they were picking up bits of orange peel, apple skin and grape stems and they were eating them. The pips of greengage plums they cracked between their teeth for the kernels

o Od (1) lnSl o. They picked up stray crumbs of bread the size of peas, apple cores so black and dirty one would not take them to be apple cores, and these things these two men took into their mouths and chewed them and swallowed them. ,,(2)

Usually, poor families with accommodation of some kind made no more plans than the homeless, for they bought nothing until it was absolutely necessary to do so. Distress was aggravated by the (3) size of families, despite the high mortality rate among the young.

The most COmmon forms of contraception were probably coitus interruptus, the safe period, syringeing and the vaginal sponge.

In general, the Victorians of the 1880s held idealistic but rigid views of feminine purity, but this was particularly so of the

1. The stones of some plums and peaches contain Prussic (Hydrocyanic) Acid, but in minute quantities. Several thousand stones need to be crushed and boiled to disti11 a lethal dose.

2. J. London, op. cit., p.78.

3. Mrs. Barnett quotes figures for 1891 in which infant mortality was 154 per thousand, op. cit., p.18. Dr. Liddle's average in his reports for the eighties is given as one-fifth dying before the age of one.

26. middle-class, where standards of respectability were drilled into the girls until marriage.(l) It was certainly not a characteristic of the Whitechapel district, although some of the results of this attitude were revealed when the murders drew attention to the wide range of vice in the area. Indeed, the police investigations brought them into contact with men from differing social backgrounds, so that it prompted considerations of why such men were to be found in the Whitechapel district.

It was difficult for any middle-class girl to have pre-marital or extra-marital sex without endangering her social position.

Further, any discovery that she had done so, could damage her prospects and affect her whole life.

However, they were forced to use their charms to attract a suitor, but then to deny him any physical contact. Some of the men would obtain temporary satisfaction with prostitutes and lower- class girls who were considered to be 'fair game'. It was a common attitude to regard the elegant, doll-like, middle-class wife as though she were asexual. On the other hand, a prostitute satisfied the need for a less exalted personality, capable of giving (2) full physical satisfaction, without having any aesthetic involvement.

She would have nO knowledge of her Client's life, and express no

1. E. Trudgill, Prostitutes and Paterfamilias in The Victorian City (H.J. Dyos and M. Wolff, editors) (Routledge and Kegan Paul), 1973, pp.693-702.

2. ~., pp.702-703.

27. criticism or distaste of any of his actions, however unusual.(l)

From this point, the link with the murders in Whitechapel is easier to understand. Ronald pearsall wrote, "The higher-priced whores had to cope with the eccentric demands of the aristocracy where there was some element of risk, while the perverts were inclined to favour the medium-range supplier. At the bottom of the pile the semi-professionals were the most vulnerable, without pimps or protectors, frequently living in common lodging-houses with or without husbands, at the mercy of sadists, and the most (2) potent of that group, the sexual murderers".

At the time of the Whitechapel murders, Scotland Yard listed sixty-two houses in the area as brothels, with many others that could also be classed as such, and estimated the number of "very . (3) low-class prost1tutes" as 1,200.

The fact that very young girls were exploited for immoral purposes hardly received a mention during the attendant publicity on the murders.

Even in an area of such concentrated vice, there were places which acquired notorious reputations. There were two infamous

1. Ludovic Kennedy'makes a similar point in 10 Rillington Place (Panther), 1971, p. 35. He wrote, "Unlike other women, prostitutes did not have to be weaned or won over; they did not make demands on you which you could not satisfy, they did not involve your emotions; you made a straight bargain with them and paid an agreed price for what they had to offer."

2. R. Pearsall, The Worm in the Bud (Weidenfeld and Nicolson), 1969, p.306.

3. D. Rumbelow, op. cit., p.40.

28. child brothels in the East End; one in Dock Street kept by

Katherine Keeley, the other in Betty Street kept by Mrs. Maxwell.

If black-eyed Jewesses were preferred, they could be procured at the Old Garrick Tavern in Leman Street. The Nag' s Head, Tower

Hill, purported to be a club, but was in fact a low brothel. A sleeping room for two could be obtained at the Cross Keys in

Gracechurch Street for four shillings, but for a short visit with

( 1) a guest there was no charge for the room if.wine was called for.

In July, 1885, an article had appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette disclosing the trade in women and young girls in our main ports but in particular the poor and depressed areas like Whitechapel. The editor, William T. Stead, pOinted out that there was no law under which the police could prosecute, and added that we were worse off than the situation in paris, for in France women under twenty-one (2) were protected by law from being procured for a brothel. English girls were taken to the Continent after false birth certificates had been obtained for them from Somerset House. These certificates were in the names of other girls who were over twenty-one. Once the girls had been delivered, they became as prisoners and had no chance to stray, and certainly no chance of escape. This foreign traffic had been the subject of an investigation by the Lord's . (3) Carum, ttee.

1. See R. Pearsall, op. cit. These places of vice are marked 44-48 on the • Sin Map of London in Victorian Times' found on the inside back and front covers.

2. W.T. Stead completed a series of artiCles in 1885 dealing with H procuration, "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon •

3. Select Committee of the House of Lords appOinted to inquire into the state of the Law relating to the protection of Young Girls from artifices to induce them to lead a corrupt life. P.P., 1881, Vol. IX, p.355 and 1882, Vol.13, p.823.

29. During its investigations, it was discovered that there existed a flourishing trade in London for the traffic of young girls from about the age of twelve upwards. "In general, mothers took most of the money. It was only the duty of the police to keep order. Open solicitation was an offence but it had to be to the . (1) annoyance and obstructlon of passengers."

Evidence was given at the inquiry by several officers from

Scotland Yard and the Divisional Superintendents. They showed a measure of agreement in blaming extreme poverty and the lack of privacy, living in overcrowded courts and dwellings. Their view was that if whole families shared one room with boys and girls sleeping together on the floor, then young people grew up without (2) much sense of decency.

The law was that two inhabitants of a parish had to complain about disorderly houses by giving information to the Clerk of the

Vestry. After this action could be taken only when it could be shown that the presence of such a house caused other houses in the road to deteriorate in value. It followed that in districts where the houses could not deteriorate further, no steps were taken. The district of Whi techapel in which the murders were committed was particularly noted for its squalid housing conditions.

1. M. Prothero, The History of the C.I.D. at Scotland Yard (Herbert Jenkins), 1931, p.13l.

2. Ibid., pp.124-l28.

30. The general public had a fear of the slums and a terror of

'Jack the Ripper', but had remarka.bly strong stomachs over what

frequently happened to young girls in Whitechapel.(l)

From Booth's researches emerged a picture of the East End

containing elements of suffering and crime and with little variety

of classes. However, he did comment upon some aspects totally

ignored by most wri ters, which afforded relief from the drabness

of life: music halls, public-houses, meetings in the open air at

Victoria Park and the legitimate theatre. The latter was

comparatively recent, for it was not until the early years of the

century that playhouses were built and material written with working-

class audiences in mind. There were three theatres of legitimate

drama in the East End: the Standard in Norton Folgate, the pavilion

in the Mile End Road, and the Britannia in Hoxton. The mass of the

people preferred music hall entertainment to drama, (2) and small

benefit concerts were organised along similar lines at public-houses.

The influence and popularity of public-houses dwarfed all other

forms of relaxation and amusement. A measure of gin cost three halfpence and passed under other names: blue ruin, duke, max, gatter and jacky. To many, it appeared that the pub was at the very centre of London's underworld.

1. See also V.D. Lipman, op. cit., pp.247-255. There are also numerous general references to the aristocracy and prostitution, the trade in girls, sexual morals, in S. Marcus, The Other Victorians (Weidenfeld and Nicolson), 1966, and M. Pearson, The Age of Consent (David and Charles), 1972.

2. There were also: Foresters Music Hall; Mi1wards Music Hall; Mile End Empire (also called Lushbys or the Paragon); East London Theatre (previously the Effingham); the Garrick Theatre in Leman Street; the Great Eastern and Black Eagle Public-Houses. See Diana Howard, London Theatres and Music Halls (Library Association), 1970, for a comprehensive alphabetical listing.

31. Charles Booth asserted that public-houses played a larger part in the lives of the people than clubs, friendly societies, churches .. 0) or m1SS1ons. The public-houses often sold food, tobacco and some temperance drinks and they were frequently associated with benefit clubs, charitable concerts and "friendly draws". Music and entertainment were also supplied. However, many of the public- houses 1n the worst neighbourhoods had very bad reputations.

Working men could get food and drink both going to and returning from work, ever since Sir George Grey's Public-House Closing Act of

1864 had closed London's pubs between one and four in the morning.

On the major east-west thoroughfare of Whitechapel Road there were forty-eight pubs in the mile from Commercial Street to Stepney (2 ) Green. About eighty-four per cent of the pubs in the East End were strategically situated opposite road junctions Or on corners, and most of the side-streets leading off main roads had two pubs at their entrances. In evidence given before the Royal Commission on

Liquor Licensing Laws (1896), it was stated that down one mile of

Whitechapel Road there were forty-five public-houses. Richer areas were comparatively free from pubs. Lady Somerset, a temperance reformer, asked at the Royal Commission why a thoroughfare justified (3 a licence in Whitechapel, but not in Belsize park. )

1. C. Booth, op. cit., First Series, Vol.l, pp.113-1l6.

2. B. Harrison, Pubs in The Victorian City, Vol.l (eds. H.J. Dyos and M. Wolff) (Routledge and Kegan Paul), 1973, p.165.

3. Royal Commission on Liquor Licensing Laws (1896), Q.31377.

32. Heavy drinking was another aspect of life in the slums that the well-to-do linked with the Whitechapel image, and "the drinking habits of the poor were regarded with a mixture of fear and

fascina tion" • (1) Hansard records that on the 9th March, 1891,

Mr. Rowntree (Scarborough) commented on the continued and excessive (2) drinking revealed at the inquest on Frances Cole, who had been murdered in Whitechapel. She was said to be "half-dazed with drink" on the night of her murder J and Saddler, the accused, tl very drunklt. The Home Secretary, Henry Matthews, admitted that the figures given for drunkenness in Whitechapel were correct. In

1889, there were 2,309 arrests for drunkenness in the \vhi techapel police district. He added that the pOlice had "very great difficulties".

Booth took an untypical view of drinking. T.S. and M.B. Simey wrote of him: (3) "He was well aware of the fact that too many people spent too much money on drink, but he was the first to point out that drink might be the result rather than the cause of poverty.

Men drank because they were poor; they were not necessarily poor because they were drunkards". He had to take care that he was not accused of condoning idleness and drunkenness, so he had to distinguish between indolence and immorality, and the conditions in which they were likely to flourish. Brian Harrison suggests that the Victorians often failed to distinguish between alcoholism, drinking and drunkenness.(4) The environmental factors contributing

1. B. Harrison, ?p. cit., p.180.

2. See also pp.123-4 and p.162.

3. T.S. and M.B. Simey, Charles Booth - Social Scientist (Oxford), 1960, p.180.

4. B. Harrison, Drink and the Victorians (Faber), 1971, p.21.

33. to drunkenness were ignored and the condition was usually treated

as compulsive or addictive.

The stress upon individualism by various Victorian social groups

led them to ignore collective or societal pressures on many who

escaped their problems by drinking. The overcrowding made condi tions

so intolerable for some people that only drink seemed to provide any ( 1) solace.

It was brought out at the Royal Commission on Housing that

intemperance was the prinCipal cause of misery and poverty in

Whitechapel, and that drinking was caused by overcrowding. (2)

Canon Barnett had commented on the extremely low class of poor

living in Whitechapel, among whom street occupations were the

chief mode of earning a living. (3) Street sellers and general

dealers threw up a variety of occupations: organ grinders, acrobats,

professional beggars, newspaper hawkers, poorest costermongers,

collectors of old iron, renovators of old "lathes and old boots.

There were many whose buying and selling was conducted among the

poor. Others above the poverty line were publi" musicians, billiard

markers, scene painters, travelling photographers, costermongers

with capital in stock and barrow and perhaps a donkey. (4)

1. "Two-pennyworth of gin is the best way out of Whitechape1", D.G. Halsted, Doctor in the Nineties (C. Johnson), 1959, pp.63-64.

2. RCIIWC, op. cit., Minutes of Evidence, Qs.5126-5128.

3. Select Committee on Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement, 1881, Qs.3002-3015.

4. See Appendix B, pp.167-168.

34. ·.

Charles Booth stated that there were no factories of any

importance in the district; there was, however, a diverse range

of light industries and Goad's Insurance Plans for London, which

were being prepared in 1887, listed several factories of minor

importance. (I)

Tailoring and shoemaking were the two chief industries in

Whitechapel, with single rooms often used as workshops for tailoring

and then as sleeping apartments at night. At the 1891 Census, the

two highest female occupational classifications in East London were

Personal Service (10.81%) and Clothing Trade (10.48%). The third

classification for Printing and Paper was only 2.49%. For men in

East London, the Clothing Trade came fifth and the Boot and Shoe

Trade sixth from twenty-two Classifications.(2)

The Jewish working-class in the East End had a very narrow

range of occupations. Usually, these were hawking, miscellaneous

shopkeeping or clothing manufacture. All of these occupations

were susceptible to trade depresSion. The Jewish Board of

Guardians kept figures for 1882 and 1892, which Oould be

condensed as follows:

1. Factories registered in Whitechapel were in the following:- Acetic Acid; Animal Charcoal; Bakery; Basket and Brush; Bedding; Biscuit; Boot and Shoe; Cabinet and Furniture; Cane and Stick; Cap; Cardboard and Box; Coach and Carriage; Cocoa, Coffee and Mustard; Confectionary; Cork; Feather; Fish-curing; Fur and Skin; Glass and Hardware; Grocery and Provision; Hearth Stone; Ivory Turning; Laundry and Dye; Leather; Malt-Roasting; Oil and Colour; Paper; Piano; Picture Frame; Sack, Sail, Rope and Water Proofing; Sash, Line and Cord; Tobacco and Cigar; Varnish and Japan; and Yeast.

2. See also Chapter 1, p.12.

35. ~ 1892

Tailoring 438 926 Boot and Shoe 187 466 Hawkers 257 316 General Dealers 108 151 Tobacco 146 146 Glaziers 118 75 Woodworking 54 160 ------1,308 2,240

(1) Total Occupied 1,588 2,834

Apart from the noticeable increase of workers in the wood- working trades and the decline of glaziers and to some extent those employed in tobacco trades, these figures are not in any way remarkable. The Jewish Board of Guardians tried to direct Jews into industrial callings.

When Charles Booth gave his paper on "The Inhabitants of Tower

Hamlets (School Board Division) their Conditions and Occupations,,(2) to the Royal Statistical Society of London in June, 1887, he made two main forms of classification. One was to divide into eight classes (A-H) according to Means and Position of Heads of Families; the second main classification was a division into thirty-nine classes according to the character of employment of the Heads of

Families. According to Booth's classification of the Whitechapel

1. V.D. Lipman, £E. cit., pp.83-84.

2. Tower Hamlets School Board Division was made up of the Unions of Whitechapel, St. George's in the East, Stepney, Mile End Old Town and poplar. Whitechapel Union lay along the City boundary from the Tower to Norton Folgate, and included the sub-districts of Spitalfields, Mile End New Town, Whitechapel Church, Goodman's Fields and Aldgate.

36. Union, 28,502 of the total population of 73,518 could be defined

. (1) as very poor, or poor, that 1S 38.77%.

Children were greatly influenced by having to live in such conditions, and observing such life-styles at an impressionable

period of their lives. Many children in Whitechapel lived lives where crime was accepted as a normal standard, and to remain honest and poor was looked upon with derision. However, the expansion and improvement of education in the last quarter of the century had a great effect on the lowering of crime figures. (2)

In general, the needs of children received little help from the publicity accompanying the 'Ripper's' murders. Although one of the most repellent aspects of vice in Whitechapel was the exploitation of small girls, this was hardly touched upon, whereas prostitution had considerable coverage. Similarly, the educational needs of children were mainly ignored, and there is not the slightest evidence to show any influence in this field.

Many children in Whitechapel received no education at all before the provision of schools became compulsory in 1870.(3)

There were schools available which were provided by religious agencies, one of the most notable being Davenant Grammar School

1. See Appendix B for full figures of the Whitechapel Union based on both of the main forms of classiciation.

2. J.J. Tobias, Crime and Industrial SOCiety in the Nineteenth Century (Pelican edition), 1972, pp.291-292.

3. For Canon Barnett's re-opening of St. Judes School, see Chapter 5. In addition to Board Schools and National Schools, many others were provided in the area by the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and the Jews (Free and Infant).

37. which was then situated in Whitechapel Road. When the Charity

School and the National School were put up for sale in the parish of Spitalfields in Whitechapel, the proceeds were used to build

Christ Church School, which was opened in Brick Lane in 1883.(1)

The Education Act of 1870 introduced the establishment of

School Boards throughout the country. In both Whitechapel and

Spitalfields, the claustrophobic conditions in some of the establishments reflected the overcrowding in housing. Often ordinary accommodation was made use of; a typical example:

11, Pelham Street, Spitalfields, was used as a schoolroom in 1880 by twenty-five children of an age range from four to seven years, and the master and his wife. It measured 9ft. (long) by 8ft. by

8ft. (2)

After the Education Act of 1870, there was a progressive decline in the proportion of illit~rates. The Annual Reports of the Registrar-General show a decrease in the proportion of both sexes who signed the marr iage regis ter wi th JIll rks . In every thousand marriages between 1871 and 1875, there were 186 men and

252 women who signed with marks and 104 marriages in which neither party could write. The respective figures for 1898 were 31, 36 and 10. However, London showed a peculiarity in the trends.

The Reports included the observation that for the ten-year period from 1887-1897 the southern counties showed more illiterate men

1. E. Ramsey in This is Whi techapel (Whi techapel Art Ga'11ery), 1972, p.ll.

2. H. Jephson, The Sanitary Evolution of London (Fisher and Unwin), 1907, p.245. See also Medical Officer of Health's Report for Whitechapel, 1880.

38. than women at marriage, whereas in the northern counties the women were more illiterate than the men at marriage.(l) In 1897, when this was particularly noticeable, London was an exception, hav'ng a higher proportion of illiterate females.

Whitechapel itself shared another unusual feature with some parts of London. In 1898, for every thousand marriages in London,

25 men and 32 women signed with a mark, but in five London districts

(and some districts in other parts of the country), the aggregate of husbands who signed by mark exceeded 100 in every thousand marriages. The five districts were London City, Whitechapel,

Bethnal Green, St. Georges in the East and Mile End Old Town. In

these districts, the figures for illiteracy per thousand marriages was 113 men and 159 for women. These high figures were contrary to

the trends elsewhere in England and Wales.

When these five districts were excluded from the London figures,

the number of illiterates in every thousand marriages slumped to

16 for husbands and 18 for wives. The conclusion drawn in the (2) Report after an inspection of marriage registers is that the

very high figures for illiteracy were a result of the high number

of foreign Jews in the East End.

At a time when Whitechapel life was being closely examined and

reported on as one murder followed another, such subjects as

illiteracy trends were, like the protection of children, and the

1. 60th Annual Report of the Registrar-General, Vol.18, 1898, pp.13-14.

2. 61st Annual Report of the Registrar-General, Vol.16, 1899, pp.12-l3.

39. general unavailability of work, not sufficiently spectacular as

news items to share the focus of publicity.

Two further and different views of the children of the Whitechapel area are provided by a doctor and a teacher. A doctor wrote, "It was

no place for children to grow up in, but grow up they did in large

numbers, that is if they survived the drunkenness, cruelty and

neglect of their dissolute parents. There were schools of a kind,

but it was as much as the attendance officer's life was worth to

try and round up the truants. There was little provided in the way of entertainment for these ragged ragamuffins; only the barrel

organ, with a destitute looking Italian grinder or a Punch and Judy ,,(1) sow.h A teacher records the impact of his first teaching

appointment in the area, "Never shall I forget my first glimpse of a class of school board children. In the year 1885, my second year at Borough Road College, I was appointed to a post at Settles

Street Board School, on the borders of Whitechapel; and after my apPointment I went to have a look at the boys. However could I

live among such dirty faces, such greasy clothes, such graceless

little rag-a-muffins? Poverty r did not mind; to that I had been accustomed. But it had been clean poverty, not sordid, grimy heart-rending poverty like this. When, however, I actually took up my work among them, I soon came to tolerate the squalor.

I found that the bays were quite decent little fellows under the dirt. But I thought then, and I think now, that they needed soap and water much more than they needed pen, ink and paper. ,,(2)

1. D.G. Halsted, Doctor in the Nineties (Christopher Johnson), 1959, p.30.

2. P.B. Ballard, Lux Mihi Laus: The Work of the London School Board, 1937, Introduction.

40. This teacher became a writer on educational subjects and eventually an inspector of schools, but not all those employed in schools were as responsible. Mrs. Barnett mentions a case in

1890(1) of one, Ella Gillespie, who was sentenced to five years' penal servitude for savagely punishing and brutually assaulting the infants in the Hackney Pauper schools. The managers had known about her actions for some time but commented that "accidents occur".

Perhaps one of the reasons why the 'Ripper' murders and social conditions were closely linked, was because Whitechapel exaggerated the problems of the country, not only in its areas of poverty, but also in that it had vast numbers of prostitutes and drunkards, although these two problem groups "were not psychological aberrations but the products of a particular socio-economic

" (2) structure . A clearer idea of this structure is received from the following.

The Minutes of the Whitechapel Union Board of Guardians gave figures for 1885-90 taken from its Report for 1891. The statistics for each year ended on Lady Day (i.e. 25th March).

Ratio per 1,000 Year Number of In-door and Out-door paupers Total of population

1885 1,350 325 1,675 23.4 1886 1,223 348 1,571 22.0 1887 1,172 324 1,496 20.9 1888 1,253 313 1,566 22.0 1889 1,303 305 1,608 22.5 1890 1,266 309 1,575 22.0

1. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., p.683.

2. B. Harrison (1971), op. cit., p.355.

41. At this period, the Whitechapel Guardians were making a determined effort to abolish out-door relief.(l) However, in the whole of

London, out-door relief had increased by 11,113 between 1885-88, and the ratio per thousand for the whole of London for paupers relieved was 24.2.(2) In the City of Birmingham, the average ratio (3) per thousand from 1884-88 was 26.3. Nationally, the number of paupers relieved in England and Wales for 1886, 1887 and 1888 were

770, 570; 778, 961; and 778, Ill, an average ratio per thousand of 27.8 based on an estimated population of over 28 million.(4)

It is a mistake to regard the whole of Whitechapel as being completely without the will to overcome the deprivation and poverty.

East London shared in the development of prudential thrift shown by

the growth of the Friendly Societies. Whitechapel district had

7,346 members of such societies for a total population of 73,518.

Of these, 4,750 were Loyal United Friends. (5) Whitechapel was also

the centre of propaganda for the Co-operative Wholesale Society,

and the London headquarters were situated in Hooper Square. Clubs

often extended their range of activities by starting co-operative

societies. The first time this was done was 1888, the same year

as the murders.

1. Select Committee of the House of Lords on Poor Law Relief, 1888, Minutes of EVidence, Q.2410 and Q.4498.

2. ~., Qs.20-29.

3. ~., Qs.327-328.

4. ~., Qs.112-119.

5. C. Booth, op. cit., First Series, Vol.I, pp.105-112. See also Chapter 5, p.99.

42. Charles Booth felt that the causes of poverty in this area came under three general headings. Firstly, there was the question of employment, for work was often irregular or casual, and regular work was sometimes very poorly paid. Secondly, questions of habit;

for example, thriftlessness and drunkenness. Thirdly, there were

questions of circumstances. Illness was an important factor and

so was the problem of large families. Therefore he attempted to

examine poverty as a social condition that might arise for a large

number of reasons.

In the Whitechapel environment, social workers were attempting

in various ways to cope with some of these reasons, whilst the

feeling of guilt which had been developing over the very poor was

getting stronger. Another reaction to the demonstrations of

violence in London during 1886 and 1887 was fear of an upriSing.(l)

Probably the anarchistic nature of 'Jack the Ripper's' crimes in

1888, with their pitiless exposure of some of the worst aspects of

Whi techape 1 , were particularly relevant to the situation. They

fitted the existing mood, whether they excited guilt or fear or

even both. This could explain in some measure their wide and

enormous impact.

It is impossible to overstress the importance of overcrowding,

or, therefore, the environmental features which most confirm the

nature of the Whitechapel area. A consideration of housing and

sanitation are held over to the next two chapters.

1. See G. Stedman Jones, op. cit., pp.282-290. The footnote on p.290 contains a comprehensive list of writings giving warning of the necessity for reform to counter threats of revolution.

43. CHAPTER 3

HOUSING

Two of the worst slum areas in the Whitechapel Union were

Dorset Street and Flower and Dean Street, both in the heart of

Canon Barnett I s "evil quarter mile" ~ These areas acquired even greater notoriety for their association with the victims of 'Jack

the Ripper' I and many of those concerned in the case were residents of these areas, particularly the two streets running side by side with Flower and Dean Street: Thrawl Street and Fashion Street.

These 'rookeries' had maintained a bad reputation since before the middle of the century, for when Commercial Street was cut through this area linking North London and the docks, it was felt (1) to be beneficial to health and order. Thirty years later, the

Whitechapel murders revealed that the dark courts and mean streets still choked Flower and Dean Street.

In 1875, the Metropolitan Board of Works had condemned as unfit for habitation houses in the Flower and Dean Street aroa which accommodated 4,000 people, but demolitions did not even begin until

1880. The first slum area to be designated under the terms of the

1875 Housing Act was in Whitechapel, and the Peabody Donation Fund made offers for sites cleared.(2)

1. Survey of London, Vol.27 (Athlone Press), 1957, p.8.

2. J.N. Tarn, The Peabody Donation Fund, Victorian Studies, Vol.lO; September, 1966, pp.26-27.

44. In the meantime, the tenants of Flower and Dean Street, and

its neighbouring streets, alleys and courts, awaited eviction.

During this period of stagnation, they suffered even more than

usual as their living conditions steadily deteriorated and the

landlords refused to carry out important repairs.(l) There is

evidence that this situation dragged on through the eighties and the

period of the Whitechapel murders until 1890, for on 3rd July, 1890,

the Home Secretary (Mr. Matthews) answered a question in the House

by Mr. Montague (Tower Hamlets) concerning crime and vice in

Whi techapel, where Flower and Dean Street intersected a particuarly

bad area. Mr. Matthews said that no substantial efforts had been made by property owners there, but leases were running out and he

hoped improvements would be made then. He added that the evil had

been brought to his notice in December, 1889, by the Vicar 01

St. Judes (Canon Barnett).

Throughout the 1880s, petty criminals and a wide variety of

law-breakers tended to concentrate in these streets, which were suited to concealment and avoidance of arrest. There was also an element of isolation provided, which was useful for the criminal and his activities. H.J. Dyos pOints out that these tendencies were reinforced by additions to the street plan - a dock, a canal, a railway line or a new street. "What often made them more emphatic still was incense of some foul factory, a gas-works, the debris of a street market, or an open sewer. They all acted like tourniquets applied too long, and below them a gangrene almost inevitably set in.,,(2)

1. RCHWC, op. cit., Minutes of Evidence, Qs.505l-5052. 2. H.J. Dyos, The Slums of Victoria London, Victorian Studies, Vol.XI, 1967-68, p.25.

45. In the years immediately preceding the arrival of 'Jack the

Ripper' into the Whitechapel environment, progress was very slow

in the improving of the housing situation. The blame for this is not clear and some of the muddlo came from the best of intentions, al though corruption and incompetence appeared to be chiefly responsible. Whitechapel was one of the districts adjoining the

City that had been depressed by railway extensions.(l) New

commercial, street and school board building and other improvements were also biting into Whitechapel's housing space. (2)

The displacements caused by demolitions and expansions were severe, but the demographic pressure was also aggravated by the

necessity for men who were in work to live near their places of

(3) employment. The Artizans Dwelling Act of 1875 empowered the

Metropolitan Board of Works to buy up slum property, demolish it and resell the land for working-class accommodation. Howe ver, th is

added to the difficulties, for when it was put into effect, it exacerba ted the intens i ve overcrowding. The Act had the same

consequences as the clearances and evictions for railway develop­

ment and commerce in putting Whitechapel at saturation paint.

Medical Officers were technically responsible for starting

slum improvement schemes, but in general they considered that

legiS la tion harassed ra ther than he Iped the poor. As a consequence,

they preferred to remain inactive rather than worsen overcrowdi.ng,

1. G. Stedman Jones, Outcast London (Clarendon Press), 1976, p.162.

2. Ibid., p.165, and Charity Organisation SOCiety Report, 188l.

3. J. Hollingshead, op. cit., pp.118-ll9.

46. and were reluctant to take any proceedings which might result in eviction with little hope of rehoUSing.(l)

It was also a common thing for condemned houses to remain standing and in use for many years~ Canon Barnett felt that the housing problem was three-fold. The first difficulty was to get houses condemned by the Medical Officer. Once this had been done, the authorities had to be persuaded to act on the condemnation and demolish the houses. Finally, philanthropic or building companies had to be found who would buy up land and erect decent dwellings.

In 1884, Canon Barnett, wrote, "During the whole year acres of ground cleared by the MetropOlitan Board of Works so as to provide houses for the people have remained barren as a desert. ,,(2)

During the same year, he was again involved when the East End

Dwellings Company Ltd. was formed under five directors including (3) Alfred Hoare, James Parsons, Edward Bond and A.G. Crowder.

It had been formerly registered as a company in February, 1884, but it grew from a meeting held at St. Judes Vicarage, Whitechapel, on

1st November, 1882, under the chairmanship of Canon Barnett. The

East End Dwellings Company Ltd. built Lolesworth Buildings in 1887.

This was part of the Flower and Dean Street clearance area in

Thrawl Street. Canon Barnett ministered this co-operative tenancy for three hundred families, although legally Lolesworth Street was

1. See the Report of the Medical Officer for Marylebone, 1883-4, which summarises the general medical attitude. The evicted could not afford the rents of model dwellings.

2. Mrs. H.D. Barnett, op. cit., p.137.

3. All Charity Organisation Society members. The work of the C.O.S. in Whitechapel is considered in Chapter 5.

47. in Spitalfields parish. The Four Per-Cent Industrial Dwellings

Company was also active in this area. Sites were bought up in (1) Thrawl Street and Wentworth Street.

Sir Richard Cross, the Uome Secretary, visited Whitechapel with

Home Office officials and the Medical Officer of Health in 1877,

following representations to him of the difficulty of getting

authorities to order the demolition of unfit houses. Canon

Barnett accompanied them and was encouraged by the Home Secretary's (2) sympathy.

Although Canon Barnett was disappointed by seemingly endless

delays, he did see the erection in the eighties of Brunswick

Buildings in Goulston Street (1885) and Katherine Buildings, built

by the East End Dwellings Company Ltd., in Cartwright Street (1885).

In 1886 (after nine years' delay), Wentworth Buildings in Wentworth

Street were inhabited and College Buildings were completed in 1887

on the site of Crown Court.

Despite the fact that the housing situation in Whitechapel gave

the impression of being statiC, and indeed almost unheeded until the

forceful publicity of' the Whi techapel murders, efforts were being

made in several forms, particularly in the decade preceding the

crimes.

1. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cH., pp.138-139.

2. Ibid., p.137.

48. Octavia Hill attempted to deal with the problem by trying to improve the slum dwellers as well as the dwellings, but as far as the physical problems of housing were concerned, she was probably a reactionary. (1) Her link with the Whitechapel area was strong, for she had been a close friend of Mrs. Barnett since their ( 2) schooldays.

(3) The Peabody Trust set up 'associated' tenements, that is to say, sets of rooms having communal lavatories. The Jewish Board of Guardians strongly approved of these types of buildings, (4) the first of which had been opened in Commercial Street, Whitechapel

(1864).

Attempts had also been made to involve the public and attract interest by writings. Although "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London" did not deal specifically with the East End, everything in it was relevant to Whitechapel. Originally published in pamphlet form in

1883, it was reprinted for wider circulation by the pall Mall Gazette.

This was followed in November, 1883, by an article written by Lord

Salisbury in the National Review calling for action. (5) The Lancet claimed to have forestalled "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London", however. Its reports were as accurate, but never as graphic as the

1. Stedman Jones asserts that attempts to improve working-class housing until the mid-1870s took four main forms - street clearance, model dwellings, sanitary regulation and Octavia Hill. See Chapter 9, Outcast London (Clarendon Press), 1971. 2. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. eit., pp.30-31. 3. Peabody Trust set up by George Peabody in 1862. American merchant banker who had settled in England. See J.N. Tarn (1966), op. cit. 4. V. Lipman, op. cit., p.GG. 5. See also articles in the pall Mall Gazette on 16th and 23rd October. Also, J. Chamberlain, Labourers and Artisans Dwellings, The Fortnightly Review, Vol.34, December, 1883.

49. I I I pamphlet, which was given much publicity in the Pall Mall Gazette

I by editor, W. T. Stead. I I George R. Sims, the author and journalist, wrote so strongly I and movingly of the conditions that some called him the "Dante of I I the London Slums" and others "The English .zola ". He was considered an authority on the slums and was the only journalist

accorded the importance of being called as a witness before the

Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes (1884-85). (l)

A further suggestion made in 1884 was to move the lowest class

to labour encampments outside London, with the co-operation of

employers of low-wage labour. The work would be humanely

disciplined but the casual poor would be forced there if the over-

crowding laws were strictly followed. This suggestion was not

proceeded With.(2)

Setbacks were also experienced in using the eXisting legislation.

Goulston Street had been one of the first areas in Whitechape1 to be

deSignated as a slum area under the 1875 Housing Act. The scheme

had involved the Metropolitan Board of Works in a considerable (3) loss. This was mainly because the land was sold for homes and

not for commercial use. As the land was bought for £371,600 and sold

for £87,600, the ratepayers had to bear a loss of £284,000.

1. RCHWC, op. cH., Minutes of Evidence, Qs.5602-5793. Born 1847. Author of many publications and plays. Friend of Sir Melville Macnaghten who was Assistant Police Commissioner and in charge of the C.l.D. from 1903-13. Also writer of 'Mustard and Cress' columns in Referee under the pen-name of Dagonet. Died 1922. 2. G. Stedman Jones, op. cit., pp. 303-304. 3. H. Jephson, The Sanitary Evolution of London (Fisher and Unwin) , 1907, p.293.

50. Generous compensation clauses were written into the Act of 1875(1) and many differing factors had to be considered. Landlords packed

their tenements to bursting point in order to obtain more compensation for loss of rents, and exploited the situation in any manner open to them. The result was that the City of London

Corporation and the Metropolitan Board of Works refused to sell some sites for housing as their commercial value was too high, to invi te heavy losses.

Hopes were raised when the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes followed closely on the revelations of "The

Bi tter Cry", but it indicated that many in Whi techape 1 could not afford the rents of model dwellings even if accommodation were available.

The Reverend R.C. Billing gave evidence based on his knowledge of his own parish in Whitechapel that the Peabody Buildings in the

White Lion Street block had no single rooms at 2s. 9d., but in some blocks two rooms were 5s. 6d., which was too much to pay. Some other buildings (like Sir Sydney Wa terlow' s in Bethnal Green) were

6s. 6d. to 8s. 6d. for three rooms. In the Peabody Trustees'

Report, it was said that some single rooms were available from two to three shillings weekly.(2) Apart from the cost, the lower-paid were also put off by the shortage of one-roomed flats (in 1885 about

1. Canon Barnett gave evidence on 3rd April, 1882, to the Select Committee on Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement concerning 'excessive compensation'. Qs.3062-3063.

2. RCHWC, op. cit., Report 21, Qs.503l, 5036 and 5061.

51. 7% of Peabody property was in the form of single-room flats), and

also by the rules against sub-letting.

There was discontent over the failure to rehouse. EVidence

to the Royal Commission showed that in the Spitalfields district of

Whitechapel, acres of unused land were beginning to be covered by

warehouses and not dwellings.(l)

Very often tenants were required to become a party to their own

discomfort. In the Spitalfields parish, it was common for landlords approaching the end of leases to remit part of rent owed if the

tenant agreed to giving up part of his accommodation for sub­ division. (2)

Evidence that there was no provision for rehousing the displaced

poor in Whitechapel was overwhelming.(3) Disappointingly, the Royal

Commission did not produce much of a comforting nature for the

immediate relief of Whitechapel. Although the Report of the Com- mission backed up the "Bitter Cry" with hard evidence, it found no new ways to alleviate the problems, merely indicating legislation which had not been used to advantage.

After the Commission's Report in 1885, rents began to rise more steeply. This was against the general trend of falling prices.

"The high rents were the product, primarily, of the relentless

1. Ibid., Q.5002.

2. Ibid., Q.5081.

3. Ibid., Minutes of Evidence, Qs.50l4-5017 and also Qs.5l97-520l.

52. pressure of people upon houses, and the increasing costs of land

and house' b U1'Id" lng. ,,(1)

Men students at Toynbee Hall formed a 'Streets Patrol Committee'

in 1885" They kept records of what members saw on their nightly

patrols. Their comments make a dismal and black record; a

monotonous repetition of the same bleak and depressing conditions

noted by many other writers and observers.(2)

In the year before the series of murders, Charles Booth defined

the level of poverty at twenty-one shillings a week, for a "moderate-

sized fami Iy" . By taking this figure as standard, the Whitechapel

locale of the 'Jack the Ripper' murders had a poverty level of about (3) 45%. Booth also commented upon small cottages being built on

the gardens between buildings, and "another sort of filling up

which is very common now is the building of workshops. These need

no new approach, they go with, and belong to, the houses, and access

to them is had through the houses. Some are even arranged floor by

floor, communicating with the respective floors of the house in front

by a system of bridges .... they occupy the ground, obstruct light " ,,(4 ) an d s h ut out alr. He further commented that what was even

worse than this interleaving of small cottage property or the

addition of workshops, was the solid backward extension so that

eventually house reached back to house. I

I 1. A.S. Wohl in The History of Working-Class Housing (David and I Charles), 1971 (ed. S.D. Chapman), p.27.

I 2. See Thomas Hancock Nunn - The Life and Work of a Social Reformer - I written By His Friends (Baines and Scarsbrook), 1942, pp.42 and 48.

I Also, Mrs. H.D. Barnett, op. cit., pp.697 and 699.

I 3. Paper to the Royal Statistical Society, 15th May, 1888.

I I 4. Journal of the Ro,-"l Statistical SOCiety, Vo1.5l, p.281.

53.

~--­ -- --~--~ At the time of the early Booth investigations, there were SOme semi-philanthropic new model buildings provided mainly under the direction of Lord Redstock, Lord Rothschild and others. Many critics felt that the ideas were humanitarian but the results were depressing. The low rents of rooms in these buildings tended to keep down other rents in Whitechapel. Other advantages were that restrictions and regulations could be enforced in cleanliness, vaccination and overcrowding. A sample of rents charged is given in the Booth Notebooks. (1)

BRUNSWICK BUILDINGS TWO ROOMS 6s. weekly LARGE SINGLE FRONT 4s. SMALL SINGLE BACK 2s. 6d.

COLLEGE BUILDINGS TWO ROOMS 4s. 6d.

BLACKWELL BUILDINGS TWO ROOMS 5s.

ROTHSCHILDS BUILDINGS TWO ROOMS 4s. 6d. THREE ROOMS 6s.

WHITECHAPEL MODEL BUILDINGS 4d. per night 6d. separate cubicle

Some of the dilapidated two-roomed houses, typical of the courts and alleys and occupied by the 'lowest classes', were let for 6s. per week, despite their squalid amenities.

Booth's investigators wrote some comments on the area of the

"eVil quarter mile" which was soon to receive all the focus of attention and concentration of publicity. The notorious Dorset (2) Street is described in the Booth Notebooks as "A very low street.

1. Booth Collection, Third Series, Vol.7 (hand-written), Group B 343 (Whitechapel), pp.18-22. 2. Later the scene ef the Mary Kelly murder, November, 1888, which took place in Miller's Court, off Dorset Street.

54.

-_I ------

Thickly populated low class. Common lodging houses. Many

thieves and criminals. Three storey houses let out in single

rooms. Front-room 5s. Single back room 3s. and 4s."

Fashion Street, in the Flower and Dean Street rookery, had

numerous blind courts and alleys, which seldom had back yards for

the houses. The front door opened immediately into the living-

room, which was, on average 1 12ft. x 10ft., with stairs in the

corner by the fire-place leading to a single bedroom. These

single rooms were four shillings a week and usually contained

paren t S, 0 ft en Wl'th as many as SlX. C h'ld1 ren. (1)

At the time of the investigators' visit, the repaving of a

courtyard had meant an additional sixpence on the rent of the

adjoining hovels. Large numbers of Jews lived in Fashion Street,

which, like Dorset Street, had many three-storey houses and small

shops.

Artillery Street and Artillery passage had several rooms for

three shillings and sixpence. Gunn Street was also exceptionally

poor and some of the single rooms could be obtained for half-a-crown

a week. Houses often with sixteen-foot frontages were almost

beyond repair.(2)

Booth's interviewer summarised his views on Whitechapel

commenting that from Commercial Street to City Road the "models"

contained the decent working-class, and a large proportion of

1. Booth Collection, op. cit., pp.23-24.

2. Ibid., p.25.

55. Whitechapel's poor population. The average rent for two rooms

was five to six shillings a week and the average for a single room

from half-a-crown to four shillings weekly. He blamed foreign

Jews for much of the overcrowding.

In the near-by area of Bethnal Green, rent was not as high

as Whitechapel, although rates were high, but this was largely

attributed to the administration of the Poor Law in this Union. (1)

In the Census year of 1891, the respective percentages of

overcrowding (i.e. more than two persons to each room) for those

living in one to four roomed tenements were 45.2 for East London (2) and 35.5 for London as a whole. Accurate figures on Qver-

crowding in Whitechapel at this time were difficult to obtain as

both landlords and tenants were adept at concealing the amount of

sub-letting that went on. More reliable statistics could be

obtained by making night inspections after the public-houses had (3) closed.

However, following the failure to push new legislation, the problems of housing were to be abruptly removed from the region of statistics and debate. "Beyond the she 1 ter of the House of Commons a new horror lurked to make Londoners dread the slums and slum dwellers. In the autumn of 1888 Jack the Ripper disembowelled his

1. Booth Collection, op. cit., Group B 316 (Bethnal Green).

2. See The History of Working-Class Housi~ (ed. S.D. Chapman) (David and Charles). 1971, pp.21-25.

3. RCHWC, op. eft., Q.4989.

56. first victim in Whitechapel".(l) Suddenly it seemed that everyone was being made aware of the conditions that existed there.

One of the first to use the attention that the Whitechapel murders awakened was Canon Barnett. He felt that the interest (2) could be used to obtain better houses for the people. His first letter to The Times followed the murders of Martha Turner,

Mary Nicholls and Annie Chapman. (3) In this letter he said,

"Whitechapel horrors will not be in vain if 'at last' the public

conscience awakes to consider the life which these horrors reveal.

The murders, it may almost be said, were bound to come .... tI.

He submitted (in the same letter) four practical suggestions:

(1) Efficient police supervision of criminal haunts away from main roads.

(2) Adequate lighting and cleaning.

(3) Removal of slaughterhouses from the midst of Whitechapel.

(4) Control of tenement houses by responsible landlords. (4)

Canon Barnett suggested that philanthropists acquired slum property in Whitechapel, and during September there was considerable wrangling among investors, philanthropists and interested business- men over what constituted a safe return on investment in return for

taking over slum property in Whitechapel. Some of the Fourpercenters accused Canon Barnett of informing slum property owners in advance of

1. Enid Gauldie, Cruel Habitations (AlIen and Unwin), 1974, p.293.

2. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., p.701.

3. See Appendix A, pp.146-151.

4. The Times, 19th September, 1888, p.3.

57. (1) their intention to buy, so they were asked extravagant prices.

This he strongly denied.

The slum clearance programme was regarded contemptuously by the Social Democrats. They called it "mawkish twaddle'1 • Frank

Fitz, the Secretary of the Socialist League, was more mordantly cri tical. He said, "The gutters of London and their terrible human wreckage shall be made to yield four per cent and 'even more'''.

His opinion was that the murderer's activities had made the opportunity for considerable profits.(2)

On 24th September, 1888, The Star printed a letter from George

Bernard Shaw under the heading "Blood Money to Whi techapel". (3)

He wrote, "Now that the Whi techapel murderer has been so successful in calling attention for a moment to the social question Less than a year ago the West End press were literally clamouring for the blood of the people -- hounding Sir Charles Warren to thrash and muzzle the scum who dared to complain that they were starving ..•• behaving, in short, as the propertied class always does behave when the workers throw it into a frenzy of terror by venturing to show their teeth The riots of 1886 brought in £78,000 and a

Peoples Palace. It remains to be seen how much these murders may prove worth to the East End in panem et circenses •••. Indeed if the habits of Duchesses only admitted of their being decoyed into

1. T. Cullen, op. cit., pp.IOO-lOI.

2. Ibid., p.102.

3. Shaw wrote another letter to The Star (signed J.C.) which was considered too offensive and blasphemous to publish. Collected Letters, Vol.l, 1874-1897 - ed. Dan H. Laurenee (Reinha-rdt), 1965, p.197.

58. Whitechapel backyards, a single experiment in slaughterhouse anatomy

on an aristocratic victim might fetch in a round half million and

save the necessity of sacrificing four women of the people."

The letter from Shaw upset the authorities, but it was one of

many, for the killings had directed the interest of other writers

of letters to newspapers to comment on life-styles, living conditions

and organised vice in the East End.(l) Particular attention was

devoted to brothel-keeping. At this time, Canon Barnett suggested

that houses of ill-repute should be purchased and converted into

homes for the needy.

It appeared that many people felt "associated by guilt" with

Whitechapel, so that the reason for the murders caused more concern with some than the conditions in the district. As a consequence,

blame for the crimes took many forms: the bourgeois system,

sensational French novels, crime thrillers, the performance of

'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' at the Lyceum Theatre and the exciting

revivalism of the Salvation Army were considered as possible causes

by public commentators and private contributors to the press.(2)

However, these discussions indirectly kept the wider issues before

the public.

During October, 1888, Barnett attempted to float a limited

liability company. For this, he estimated that he would need about £200,000 capital. His wife, Henrietta, was to become a

1. Canon Barnett re-inforced his views in a second letter to The Times on 29th September, 1888, p.4.

2. T. Cullen, op. cit., pp.96-97.

59. director. This new company was not formed, but bad property was bought by the Four Per-Cent Industrial Dwellings Company, and blocks of buildings were eventually erected in Whitechapel and SPitalfields.(l)

This company had Jewish directors and the tenements were occupied by

Jewish people.

In The Lancet reference was made(2) to an earlier report on conditions in Flower and Dean Street, Hanbury Street and George

Yard Buildings (published 15th March, 1879) with the comment that

"our commissioners" had given assistance for acute distress in those districts. The writer noted the 'Ripper' murders in the same area and added, "Modern society is more promply awakened to a sense of duty by the knife of a·murderer than by the pens of many earnest and ready writers". A week later, The Lancet commented upon the plight of children in common lodging houses, which ha.d been brought to public notice by the murders, and also directed attention to the (3) work of Dr. Barnado.

During the period of the murders, Lloyd George, with Sir Alfred

Davies, visited Whitechapel and saw the living conditions in the area adjacent to Aldgate Underground Station. "In the dim-lit sawdust bars they saw dockers in rags, drinking with their drabs the cheapest liquor which their wretched wages could afford, while their wives hung around outside the doors, abusing them, calling them home, and being clouted and kicked in return. They heard hungry children

1. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., pp.70l-702.

2. The Lancet, 6th October, 1888, p.683.

3. ~., 13th October, 1888, p.728.

60. whimpering. They then turned into the squalid alloys and backyards of the fourpenny doss-houses, climbed the rickety stairs and pushed their way into the crowded dens where tramps and thieves lay in dozens on t h e fl oor. "C 1)

Although Canon Barnett had used the murders to stir up

indignation and involvement, he did not at that time see any easy or obvious solutions to the housing problem in Whitechapel. His views are clearly set out in a letter written before, in 1887, on co-operative tenancy, referring in particular to College Buildings. (2)

Under this System, a committee of tenants helped to manage the buildings. The landlord was paid four per cent of his outlay, and the surplus was divided among tenants in proportion to the rent they paid. Barnett, however, was strongly opposed to municipal building and wrote that municipal building was too easy and too cheap a remedy. He said that the evil was too great to be met by a vote of money, and that there must be activity of individuals and

the living interest of public opinion. Further, there was the

individual consciousness of duty, the linking of the housing problem with the industrial problem, the educational problem, the social problem and the religious problem. The solution of the housing problem lay in the sense of fellowship which could prevent the evils (3 destroying and degrading human beings. )

1. F. Owen, Tempestuous Journey (Hutchinson), 1954, pp.63-64.

2. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., p.139.

3. Ibid., p.703.

61. In the years immediately following the saturation publicity coverage of 1888, Whitechapel housing appeared to run slightly against the general trend, which indicates to some degree the local influence of the murders.

Building in the London area totally dominated housing trends throughout the country and, in general, building was at its lowest after 1890. S.B. Saul(l) suggests that investment in housing was largely determined by causes special to the domestic market, a speculative activity, not a residual activity undertaken when opportunity for investment elsewhere was poor, and involving a wide margin of error.

Professor Wohl summed up the general situation in London:

"By 1890 it was quite clear that the activities of philanthropic capitalism, whether on the part of great companies and trusts, or on the part of individuals, like Octavia Hill, had failed to reach sufficient working men, or indeed the workmen most in need of special assistance.,,(2)

In this year, the Peabody Trust was the only model dwelling company which had a policy for extensive building, and building (3) costs had doubled in forty years.

1. S.B. Saul, House Building in England, 1890-1914, Economic History Review, 2nd Series, XV, 1962.

2. A.S. Woh1, The Housing of the Working Classes in London, 1815- 1914, in S.D. Chapman (ed.), op. cit., p.40.

3. See O. Fleming, Working Class Dwellings: the re-building of Boundary Street, 1900, pp.6-7; and also H. Jephson, op. cit., p.364.

62. In the narrower confines of Whitechapel there is some evidence

that the impact of the murders had a short-lived effect on housing,

in a limited area. The compilers of the twenty-seventh volume of I

Survey of London, dealing with the Spitalfields district of

I Whitechapel, made a very close and detailed study of the "evil

quarter mile" and in particular the Flower and Dean Street area .. I

They establish the level of this district by quoting descriptions

I of its attendant courts, alleys and lanes in the eighties before

the murders of 'Jack the Ripper', when Flower and Dean Street was I depicted after examination as the very worst that London was

I capable of producing.(l) After the crimes, they assessed improve- ments and commented, "The Whitechapel murders undoubtedly gave a I further impetus towards the rebuilding of the Flower and Dean

(2) I Street area".

I By 1892, the whole of the north side of Flower and Dean Street

(3) I had been cleared. The Four Per-Cent Industrial Dwellings Company, managed by Jewish directors, erected 'model' dwellings on this site, I which they had purchased in 1891 from the Henderson family. The buildings were called "Nathaniel Dwellings" and were built from the design of Messrs. Joseph and Smitherm (45, Finsbury Pavement).

The East End Dwellings Company erected a block of dwellings called Stafford Buildings (from the designs of Messrs. Davis and

1. Survey of London, Vol.27, Spitalfields and Mile End New Town (Athlone Press), 1957, p.249.

2. ~., pp.248-249.

3. For Flower and Dean Street improvements see J.N. Tarn, Five Per Cent Philanthropy (C.U.P.), 1973, pp.82-89.

63. Emanue1) in 1890 on a site they acquired in 1889 to the north side

of Wentworth Street. The same architects (Davis and Emanuel) were responsible, through the East End Dwellings Company, for the

Cromer Street estate in 1892.(1)

There was also some private development. In 1897, Abraham

and Wolf Davis purchased a site between Thrawl Street and Flower and Dean Street. This site was bounded on the west by Lolesworth

Street. A hlock of dwellings known as Godfrey, Josephine, Winifred,

Helena, Ruth and Irene Houses were built from the designs of . (2) Abraham Davls.

Also, between Thrawl Street and Flower and Dean Street were

the Charlotte de Rothschild Dwellings, bounded to the east by

Lolesworth Street and to the west by Commercial Street. They were

close to Lolesworth Buildings and Toynbee Hall. Other important names in East End developments were the Great Eastern Buildings,

the Industrial Dwellings Society and the Chicksand Estate.

The Medical Officer of Health's report for 1888 listed thirty-

six streets which contained 141 registered lodging-houses in the

Whitechapel district, and, according to figures issued for the year

1889, there were twenty-three model dwellings in the Whitechapel

Union, which had a total of 2,546 apartments, accommodating 9,429

1. Survey of London, op. clt., pp.249-250.

2. ~., p.250.

64. -- - I

people, of whom 5,486 were adults and 3,943 were children.(l) Two years later, there were 3,127 model dwelling apartments, housing (2) 12,279 people. This accommodation was criticised by Dr. Loane in his report.

Mrs. Barnett, however, formed the view that the murders of the five prostitutes "saved the district". (3) It is likely that she was thinking mainly in terms of the morality of the area, or, possibly, the improvement in housing in the Flower and Dean Street dis trict. Mrs. Barnett's view of such matters was that misery always resu 1 te d f ram wrong-dolng· (4) an d so the S h QC k 0 f t h e mur d ers occurred opportunely as the area was at its nadir of distress.

The murders may have saved the district but by the time of

Dr. Loane's report in 1891 the short-lived impact of the murders had gone. The impetus of interest in Whitechapel conditions and the feeling of urgency over housing died with the interest in the crimes.

Jack London's relevations based on researches in Whitechapel in

1902 show a similarity in conditions to those in 1888,(5) so that any improvements in any sphere of housing were relative only.

1. These twenty-three buildings were named: Albert, Alexandra, Alfred, Booth Street, Brunswick, Buckle Street, College, George Yard, Howards, Katherine, Lolesworth, Metropolitan, Morrisons, New (Tenter Street), Peabody (Commercial-Goulston Street), Peabody (Glasshouse Street), Plough Street, Rothschilds, Royal Mint, Shepherd Street, St. Georges House, Tenter and Wentworth. 2. H. Jephson, op. cit., p.368, and the Report of the Medical Officer of Health (Whitechapel), 1891. 3. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., p.696. 4. See K. Woodroofe, From Charity to Social Work (Routledge and Kegan Paul), 1962, pp.71-72. 5. J. London, The People of the Abyss (Garrett Press, New York), 1970, pp.216-230.

65. CHAPTER 4

SANITATION

The Whitechapel murders made little impact in the area of sanitation. There are two immediate reasons which may explain this.

Firstly, matters of sanitation and health were usually closely associated with housing problems, and there was a general feeling that free market capitalism would, given time, solve most of the social problems. Secondly, poor sanitation was prevalent in London as a whole; the drains at Buckingham Palace stank in hot weather and sheets soaked in chloride of lime were put across the riverside windows of the Houses of parliament.(l) This may indicate the seemingly apathetic attitude to filth, stench, inadequate facilities

and the lack of water, in foetid dwellings which invariably had

blocked drains and privies.(2)

Jephson wrote, "It is needless to multiply instances. There

is dreadful unanimity of testimony from all parts .... total absence

of drainage, universal filth .•.• ravages of every type of

. .. (3) dlsease. . .. .

There were other nuisances to contend with, for in the White-

chapel district were slaughter-houses, patent manure factories,

1. P. Metcalf, Victorian London (Cassell), 1972, pp.76-77.

2. G.R. Sims, Horrible London (Chatto and Windus), 1889, pp.42-47.

3. H. Jephson, op. cit., p.28.

66. together with the occupations of gut-spinning, tallow-melting, bladder-blowing and paunch cleaning. All of these caused a vile stench which pervaded the living quarters of those living close (1) b y. In 1889, the dust destructor in Wentworth Street gave out so much filth that the drains were choked, and as Henrietta

Barnett put it "makes harder that fight with dirt in which so many of the poor show heroic qualities, and in which so many give up, letting in on their homes drink, gambling and Sloth".(2)

At the time of the Whitechapel murders in 1888, the Public

Health Act of 1875 was still the backbone of Sanitary Law in (3) England. It had three hundred and forty-three sections and prescribed in detail the sanitary requirements for local authorities.

The Act also made use of the Statutory Nuisance (Section 91) from earlier Acts of 1848 and 1866. By this, some defects could be remedied. Procedure could be taken in Petty Sessional Courts against "any premises in such a state as to be injurious to health or a nuisance".

Nevertheless, answers to questions before the Royal Commission(4) revealed that the bye laws of the District Board of Works for

Whitechapel were being ignored. It was stated that only two parishes in London used the bye laws. The most regularly flouted

1. ~., pp.145-152.

2. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., p.195.

3. It regulated the relationship of the Central Authority with local authorities, and began an era of environmental sanitation, for many Acts followed dealing with alkalis, allotments, coal mines, cremation, food and drugs, fruit pickers, factories, ships, canals, river pollution, quarries, sale of horseflesh, workshops, isolation hospitals, milk supplies, open spaces, hops and rag flock.

4. RCHWC, op. cit., Qs.4990-4994.

67. was Section 35 of the Sanitary Act of 1866, which contained

• tenement provisions t authorising the local authority to make regulations fixing the number of persons who may occupy a house or part of a house, let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family. Such houses were to be registered, inspected and have the provision of sanitary appliances enforced.

Others had made serious and patient efforts to complain.

During the seventies and eighties, Dr. John Liddle, the Medical

Officer for Whitechapel, had regularly condemned the health hazards of one-room living. He described that in the back room of the ground floor of 13, Goulston Street, which measured 12ft. x 9ft. x

7ft., a man, six women and three children were sleeping. The room was contiguous to three closets and a dust hOle.(l) Another case

(of many similar) recorded that the body of a dead child had been kept in a living room for a period of fifteen days. He mentioned also that after a death in the family, children would play and adults would continue eating and drinking, with a "degree of

indifference to the presence of the corpse".

Usually bodies were kept for long periods whilst money was

being raised to pay for the funeral. The pauper funeral for

children had a humiliation and disgrace attending it which aggravated the grief of relatives, and, in most cases, showed (2) little dignity or respect.

1. Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health (Whitechapel), 1871.

2. M.S. Reeves, Round About a Pound a Week (G. Bell and Sons), 1913, p.67.

68. In 1902, Jack London wrote that these conditions were still

existing in Whitechapel. One very poor family kept a dead child

on the bed during the day and on the table during the night.

When the table was needed at meal times the body was either put

back on the bed, or kept on a food shelf. One mother had kept a (1) corpse under these conditions for three weeks.

Yet, as early as 1875, the Whitechapel Board of Guardians sent a petition to Parliament commenting that the death rate in part of Whitechapel (that including St. Judes parish) was 40 in

1,000 and 80% of the paupers in that area came from condemned (2) houses. Doctors had actively and persistently attacked the sanitary conditions in Whitechapel. Dr. Liddle had three times condemned a Whitechapel court as unfit for habitation but it remained untouched because the authorities had not acted on the . (3) candemna t lon.

An article in The Lancet maintained that of 525 houses inspected in the area, 37% showed direct communication between drain-soil pipes and drinking water cisterns, giving a constant threat of typhoid (4) fever. Many courts in Whitechapel had stand-taps only, from which water could be obtained daily for periods of fifteen to thirty minutes only, but not on Sundays. If for any reason the owners did not pay the water rates promptly, the supply was cut off.

1. J. London, op. cit., pp. 303-304.

2. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., p.129.

3. Ibid., p.130.

4. The Lancet, 27th January, 1883, p.160.

69. Tusons Court was without water on one occasion for a period of

( 1) four months. From February, 1883, when it gave strong support

to articles in the Daily News called "packing in the Poor", to the

murders in the autumn of 1888, The Lancet printed numerous articles

denouncing sanitary conditions, particularly in the Flower and Dean

Street area and agitated for suitable remedies and actions. The

Lancet also sent its own medical inspectors to report on lIanbury

Street, which was situated to the north of Flower and Dean Street. (2)

Unfortunately, some of the inhabitants of Whitechapel were in

such a desperate situation that they aggravated the conditions.

Evidence was given before the Royal Commission (1885) that

35, Hanbury Street, had nine rooms and averaged seven to a room,

and had one bed per room. Overcrowding was exacerbated by night

and surprise visitors, and by the fact that fowls were often kept. (3)

Very often, too, in Whitechapel, a family would be moved from a

cellar by the sanitary authorities when it was too squalid for

occupation. Once the disturbed family had left the condemned

habitation, it would be immediately re-occupied by other persons. (4)

Despite the frustrating and depressing conditions, there were

strong efforts to introduce amenities into the area. In November,

1875, the lease of premises in Goulston Street was aSSigned to the

Commissioners of Whiteehapel Public Baths and Wash-houses, for an

1. H. Jephson, op. eit., pp. 160-168.

2. T. Cullen, op. cit., pp.47-48.

3. RCHWC, op. eit., Q.5095.

4. ~., First Report, p.16.

70.

'------.- unexpired term of 69 years, at an annual ground rent of £54. The

premises, which included three dwelling houses, were all in a

dilapidated condition. A sum of £8,500 was borrowed by the

Commissioners in 1877 from the Metropolitan Board of Works. This

amount, repayable by thirty annual instalments, was to be used to

re-erect and furnish the baths. The amenities were available

from the opening in August, 1878, the prices of admission being:

first-class (6d. warm bath and 3d. cold bath), second-class (2d.

warm bath and Id. cold bath). There were also forty-two separate

washing compartments. The average annual attendance was

approximately 120,000, about a quarter of these being first-class

admissions. (1)

Investigations were conducted methodically on nuisances reported

but despite the weight of genuine cases and complaints, much inform-

ation given to the authorities needed to be sifted carefully. The (2) . Poor Law Union papers contaln the original of a typical example.

On 15th July, 1888, a Mr. Bhumenboam of 10, Artillery Street, in the

Spitalfields parish of Whitechapel, wrote directly to the Sanitary

Inspector at the Local Government Board in Whitehall, alleging that

Mrs. Shonberg was sub-letting and allowing six lodgers to sleep in

two beds in one room. The letter also bore the signatures of the

other two tenants. He complained about the stench and filth and also the condition of the lavatory and back-yard. According to

his statement, he had written sevoral times to the Whitechapel Board

1. The Whitechapel Report on Public Baths and Wash-houses. In the year 1887-1888, the number of admissions was 119,161, of which 29,845 were first-class and 89,316 second-class.

2. MH 12 (7946).

71. of Works in Great Alie Street concerning his fear of illness, but the authorities had taken no action. Whitehall sent a copy of the letter to Whi techapel Board of Works on 18th July.

A representative wrote on 20th July that the premises had been watched carefully for some time by the inspector as they were occupied by foreign Jews. There were four people living there and not six and each had 400 cu.ft. of space. The house was not dirty but Mr. Bhumenboam had been feuding for some time with

Mrs. Shonberg and frequently reported her. The other two tenants

(Grabeshower and Wigdore) both denied signing the letter, and, indeed, it is obvious that both their Signatures are by the same hand. However, there were numerous genuine letters nearly all making complaints about the stench from drains.

The Lancet used the early publiCity aroused by the murders to re-inforce the drive against insanitary living. Immediately after the killing of Annie Chapman on 8th September in Hanbury

Street, it published details of an inquest in the murder parish of

Wh itecha pe 1 , (1) highlighting the conditions. A child aged four months had died from suffocation in a room about twelve feet square.

It had shared this abode with its parents and six other children, each person having little more than a hundred cubic feet of air space. The charge for this accommodation was four shillings and sixpence. The jury returned a verdict censuring the sanitary authorities.

1. The Lancet, 15th September, 1888, p.532.

72. The conditions were further emphasised when Mary Kelly (1) was murdered. She was the only victim of 'Jack the Ripper'

to be killed indoors and the degradation of her small room was

reported in considerable detail in all the newspapers, together

with the gruesome facts of her end.

This situation, however, was already known to some, for in (2) answer to a question before the Royal Commission, the

Reverend R.C. Billing, referring to Whitechapel, said that although

there was a recognised cubical space given under a minute of the

Poor Law Board, this was no legal power. The figures he quoted were 300 cu.ft. for a person in health, 1,200 cu.ft. for a woman

lying-in and 700 cu.ft. for an infirm person using the same room

night and day.

It was in the matter of mortuary facilities, however,(3)

that the crimes made most impact on health and sanitation in

Whi techapel. The Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel(4)

commented in his report for 1888, "I regret to report that we are

not possessed of a mortuary". This scarcity of proper amenities was manifest during the publicity of the murders. Bodies were

kept in a shed, adjoining the workhouse in the Old Montague Street, and once there were quite naturally free to decompose. The Coroner,

Wynne E. Baxter, strongly objected to the careless manner of the

1. See Appendix A, pp.158-159.

2. RCHWC, op. cit., Q.5107.

3. Ibid., First Report, p.3l. See also above Chapter 1, p.18.

4. Dr. J. Loane. He succeeded Dr. J. Liddle in 1885 as ~redical Officer of Health for Whitechapel, a position Dr. Liddle held for thirty years.

73. post-mortem examination on Polly Nicholls. Robert Mann, a work- house pauper in charge of the workhouse mortuary and subject to epileptic fits, undressed and washed the body before the police arrived to examine it. The Coroner in the East End had to conduct his inquest in the Working Lads' Institute in Whitechapel

Road, or, more usually, in a public-house.(l)

It is not surprising, therefore, that mortuary, post-mortem and inquest facilities were under criticism.

Following the murder of Annie Chapman, the attack was maintained by The ~ancet in the edition of 22nd September, 1888:

"The Whitechapel tragedies are bringing to light more than one metropolitan want. The need for proper mortuary accommodation in the Whitechapel district was the subject of protest by ~~. Phillips

(Divisional Police Surgeon), who complained of the impropriety of expecting medical men to make autopsies in places wholly unfitted for the purpose. His views were endorsed by the Coroner and jury at the inquest of the unfortunate woman who has recently been murdered, the former stating that there was no public mortuary between the limits of the City of London and Bow."

The article went on to draw attention to the reproach to

London that absences of accommodation of this kind implied. The writer was in no doubt that this Situation would not have been

1. See The Times, 3rd, 4th, 18th and 24th September for inquest details. Public houses often served for Coroners conducting inquests in rural areas. Only when specially built courts for magistrates became widespread did the practice cease. \vhi techapel had no such court buildings.

74. tolerated had any sufficient system of sanitary administration existed in the metropolis. He felt that the method of leaving every district to manage its own affairs, without inquiry by any department of state, was responsible for much of the default of the authorities.(l)

Further articles followed in The Lancet on the unknown murderer's activities, and it was claimed that the crimes had been commi tted in precisely the same district where doctors as sanitary reformers had often demanded the intervention of the authorities(2) and a more rigorous application of the sanitary laws and other acts to improve the area, particularly in the region of Flower and Dean

Street. There was already talk of rebuilding a large portion of

Whi techape 1.

On the 27th October, there was more and bitter reference in

The Lancet to the condition of mortuaries, particuarly those in the area where the murders were done, ".... bodies of hwnan be ings

...• relegated to places which would be condemned as unfit for slaughterhouses for cattle".

Another doctor, D.G. Halsted, commented in his autobiography on the conditions in Whitechapel at the time of the murders which were so depressing that many East Enders felt the only answer was in drinking whenever possible. Halsted, who began his medical

1. The writer went on further to suggest that the position of London generally in respect of mortuary accommodation would make a fitting subject for investigation by the Local Government Board or Home Office.

2. The Lancet, 29th September and 6th October, 1888.

75. career at London Hospital, Whi techapel , in 1884, recalls that the

most common diseases were scurvy and rickets, both caused by

malnutrition. "I remember one child so deformed by rickets that (1) one leg was three times the size of the other."

The East End, however, was well off for hospitals. (2) In

the Whitechapel area, at the time of the crimes, there were two

main hospitals: the London Hospital, in Whitechapel Road, and the

East London Dispensary in Artillery Lane. Also at hand were the

Royal Chest Hospital, La Providence French Protestant Hospital, a

Jewish Clinic in Fournier Street, Whi techape1 Union Infirmary and

the Infirmary for Asthma and Consumption in Brushfield Street.

The Whitechapel Union had its Infirmary in Bakers Row.

Although humanely and efficiently organised, it was involved in a

strange incident on 18th August, 1887, when Betsy Wilk, aged forty-

nine, an insane pauper chargeable to the Whitechapel Union, was

found burned to death in an outside lavatory adjoining the Insane

Ward. The inquest verdict was that she died from shock to the

nervous system caused by extensive burns, but in what way she took

fire there was no evidence to show. A thorough search had revealed

no method by which she could have lighted her clothes. Despi te

'an intensive investigation, no satisfactory explanation was found.

------~------1. D.G. Halsted, Doctor in the Nineties (Christopher Johnson), 1959, p.64.

2. In addition to those named for the Whitechapel area, there were others in the contiguous East End districts: Homerton Fever and Pox Hospital, the Metropolitan Hospital in Kingsland Road, Poplar Hospital in East India Dock Road, City of London Hospital at Victoria Park, East London Hospital for Children in Shadwell, the N.E. Hospital for Children in Hackney, and a German Hospital. Charles Booth, 2£. cit., First Series, Vol.l, pp.127-129. See also Goads Insurance Plans for London, 1887.

76. Afterwards, the Board of Guardians resolved that the external wall of the Female Lunatic Ward be raised three feet, to prevent persons

from outside from communicating with, or passing things (e.g. matches)

" t (1) to, tepah t 1en s.

The very thorough investigation into the death of Betsy Wilk was typical of William Vallance, Clerk to the Whi techapel Board of

Guardians, a man of integrity, compassion and application.

The reports of the Medical Officer of Health for the Whitechapel

Union show a steady decline in the Death Rate for the twenty-year period preceding the murders of the autumn of 1888. (2) During the cholera epidemic year of 1866, the Death Rate per thousand reached

38.7, falling to 27.7 in 1871 and 26.6 in 1881.(3) By 1889, the figure had fallen to 20.4, yet the average in the same year for people living in model dwellings was' less than 17 per thousand.

There were twenty-three model dwellings in the Whitechapel Union, housing 9,429 people in 2,546 apartments.

1. Poor Law Union Papers (MU 12), 2829.

2. This takes us back to within eight years of the Report of the Medical Officer of Health (Whi techapel) for the year 1860, when figures were given out that one-fifth of the children died before they were a year old, and one-third before they were five. He commented also that improvements in sewage and drainage had been made in 2,172 houses, that 3,002 cesspools had been cleared and 37,607 nuisances had been removed and many offensive trade nuisances abolished. These figures have a greater impact when one considers the conditions still in existence in 1888 (when they were highlighted by the 'Ripper' crimes), and, indeed, after the turn of the century.

3. Figures for the intermediate years were: 1883 (24.1), 1884 (22.6), 1885 (22.2),1886 (22.5),1887 (21.8), 1888 (21.1). Reports of the Medical Officer of Health (Whitechapel), 1883-1888.

77 • The Census of 1881 recorded 71,368 for the Whitechapel Union, and an estimate for 1889 was put at 75,057.(1) In the year ending

1888, there were 2,246(2) deaths and 2,572 births, and 58 instances . (3) of violent death recorded from a total of 319 1nquests.

During 1889, the figures were: 2,155 deaths, 2,633 births and 50 cases of violent death from 302 inquests. These statistics aroused no comment from the Medical Officer of Health, Dr. John Loane, who had succeeded Dr. Liddle.

Dr. Loane did, however, make an observa tion in his report for

1889 that, "Philanthropists are often devoted indi viduaUy to schemes for 'improving the welfare of the poor' and each person has some pet scheme to suit some particular class. I think some combination •... might lead to better results, than •.•. by allowing the present policy way of working to continue."

In the same report, he also commented, "In apportioning to each coroner a district, it was unfortunate that to one officer was assigned a part of the Whitechapel district, while his colleague has jurisdiction over the remainder". It is probable that he was referring here to the inquest proceedings after the Mary Kelly murder.

1. Spitalfields 22,714, Mile End New Town 22,487, Whitechapel Church 17,715, Goodmans Fields 6,430 and Aldgate 5,711. These five sub­ districts made up Whitechapel Union. Report of the Medical Officer of Health (Whitechapel), 1889. 2. Spitalfields 362, Mile End New Town 529, Whitechapel Church 1,127, Goodmans FieldS 114 and Aldga te 114. Report of the Medical Officer of Health (Whitechapel), 1888. 3. The 58 violent deaths were: Suffocation in bed (infants) 10; Burns, Scalds and Suffocation by Smoke 23 (but this figure includes 17 by fire and panic at a dramatic performance at 3, Princes Street, Spitalfields); Drowning 4; Run Over 3, Falls and Accidents 16; Poison 2 (1 Alcoholic and 1 Carbolic Acid). Reports of the Medical Officer of Health (Whitechapel), 1887 and 1888.

78. ------_.------

For several years there had been great interest and some concern over the amount of prostitution in Whitechapel and any diseases that could be associated with it.

The Contagious Diseases Acts of 1866-69 contained many measures to improve public health and hygiene; in particular, that known prostitutes living within fiteen miles of a garrison town should sign a form with the police agreeing to be medically examined once a fortnight. Refusal to sign meant an appearance before the magistrate to prove that the accusation of being a prostitute was (1) unfounded.

As all 'Jack the Ripper's' victims were prostitutes of the streets, much of the publicity from the murders was focused upon this class and its life-styles.

The women of Whitechapel were active in resenting the notoriety that their area was receiving. Under the direction of

Mrs. Henrietta Barnett, four thousand of them signed a petition which was sent to Queen Victoria during the first week in October.

The petition read: "Madam, we, the women of East London, feel horror at the dreadful sins that have been lately committed in our midst, and grief because of the shame that has befallen our neighbourhood. By the facts which have come out in the inquests,

1. Mrs. Josephine Butler attacked the Acts on the grounds that they degraded women and relieved men of any moral and physical responsibilities. After many years of her compaigning, the Acts were repealed in 1886. See G. Rosen, Disease, Debility and Death in The Victorian City (eds. Dyos and Wolff), op. cit., p.658. Also the Annual Report of the Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis for 1881 relating to the Contagious Diseases Acts, Vol.LIII, p.421.

79, we have learnt much of the lives of those of our sisters who have lost a firm hold on goodness and who are living sad and degraded lives. While each woman of us will do all she can to make men feel with horror the sins of impurity which cause such wicked lives to be led, we also beg that your Majesty will call on your servants in authority and bid them put the law which already exists in motion to close bad houses within whose walls such wickedness is done and men and women ruined in body and soul.

(1) We are, Madam, your loyal and humble servants."

The influence of Toynbee Hall was used to get the petition into Windsor Castle. Beatrice Wobb's brother-in-law, Leonard

Courtney, is thought to have been the agent for getting the (2) document to the Queen.

On 7th November, a letter was sent to Canon Barnett from the

Local Government Board, Whitechapel, by C.T. Ritchie, the M.P. for

Tower Hamlets. "Dear Mr. Barnett, The answer that Mrs. Barnett will receive is an official one, and from the Home Office, not from the Queen, hence its dryness. Because of this the Queen spoke 'to me and seemed desirous that those interested should know how much ,,(3) she sympathised wit h them. Yours very truly ••••

1. See the East London Advertiser, 27th October, 1888.

2. T. Cullen, op. cit., pp.137-138.

3. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., p.698.

80. This exchange, conducted in a concerned and courteous tone,

is, however, despite its sympathy and compassion, distant in real

terms from the problems.

In the meantime, the problems of disinfecting insanitary living

quarters were frequently considered in the Annual Reports of the

Medical Officer of Health for the district. Dr. Loane gave advice

on the treatment of urinals, drains, privies, infested walls and

sewers. He suggested various cheap but effective chemicals and

disinfectants, together with details of the best proportions and

strengths for efficacious dosing. These unspectacular activities

had a monotonous familiarity about them, for they had occupied the

Medical Officers of Whi techapel for decades. (1)

Local Medical Officers of Health and Sanitary Inspectors had

a gigantic task. As Professor Wohl put it, "One must admire and

wonder at, the energy and determination of these officials who, in

the face of great hostility from all sides (landlords, tenants,

slum-owing vestrymen and ratepayers) went about their task with such

grim enthusiasm. The number of annual inspections conducted by the

local authorities was remarkable, a testimony to Victorian energy." (2)

1. On 20th April, 1865, a young architect, N.S. Joseph, wrote to the Jewish Board of Guardians and in addition to commenting upon medical and sanitary measures, listed the following main defects: overcrowding; the use of cellars as dwellings; defective drain­ age; absence of water supplies; untrapped gullies and sinks; accumulation of refuse; inadequate ventilation; filthy and defective walls, floors and ceilings. See V.D. Lipman, op. ci!., pp. 63-64.

2. A.S. Wohl (1971), op. cit., p.23.

81. CHAPTER 5

VOLUNTARY BODIES

Voluntary bodies played an important role in Whitechapel,

not only in the attempt to introduce facilities for leisure,

entertainment and art, but also in dealing with a range of social

problems not covered by the Poor Law, but which were pressing needs.

Al though Canon Barnett used the murders to attract interest in

conditions, not all agreed with him that the publicity was good for

Whitechapel, as it was felt that the newspaper coverage by

concentrating on the more sensational and lurid aspects of life was

ignoring the real situation, the true image of which could be seen

through vOluntary work. The fact that there was little perceptible

improvement only emphasised the vastness of the problems.

Even before the murders in 1888, Whitechapel had been the most

noted area of the East End, which, in turn, was the most publicised area of London. When the time came, Whitechapel was, therefore,

most suitable to receive Toynbee Hall, the Salvation Army, the

teetotal movement and other VOluntary organisations.

Bea trice Webb describes this time as one of tlA new consciousness

of sin among men of intellect and men of property; a consciousness at first philanthropic and practical, .... then literary and

artistic .•.. and finally analytiC, historical and explanatory. ,,(1)

1. B. Webb (1950), op. cit., p.154.

82. Canon Barnett said something similar based on his practical (1) experience of Whitechapel.

At this time, reform was in the air, and undergraduates were

reacting against the laissez-faire doctrines of the economists.(2)

This made it all the more favourable for Canon Barnett's work in

Whitechapel, as many undergraduates at Oxford were wanting to help

with settlement work.

The settlement movement was another response of some of the

privileged classes to the social problems of the 1880s. The

settlements worked to overcome the hardening of class divisions into Canon a fixed and inseparable state of poor life and rich life.

Barnett emphasised close personal contact, and particularly of those

of cultural and class extremes, as a solution to the social crisis.

He wanted to move away from the system of giving money, but remaining

(3) separate and remote.

In February, 1884, a derelict industrial school in Commercial

Street was purchased and structurally altered to house a 'settlement'

It was named Toynbee Hall after Arnold Toynbee of university men.

1. 8eatrice Webb (then potter) describes the introduction into her family circle of Octavia Hill, Canon and Henrietta Barnett and her three political-minded brothers-in-law, Henry Hobhouse, Charles Cripps and Leonard Courtney. This circle was enlarged through her friendshIp with Mary and Charles Booth. This distinguished group were all connected at some time or other with work in Whitechapel and district. ~., pp.150-151.

2. J.A.R. Pimlott, Toynbee Hall (Dent), 1935, p.23.

3. See Brian Simon, Education and the Labour Movement (Lawrence and Wishart), 1965, pp.78-79.

83. who had recently died.(l) It became a centre of much research, some of it forming a turning point in social history. Graduates and local people mixed in friendship. Beatrice Webb used Toynbee

Hall as a base for her research into "Sweating in East London".

George Bernard Shaw, John Burns, Tom Mann and Ben Tillet were all at various times associated with Toynbee Hall, as was Charles Booth, who worked closely with Canon Barnett in his initial enquiries (2) concerning the life of the poor. Barnett had been greatly influenced by Edward Denison, a layman of aristocratic origin who had originally suggested the idea of groups of settlers. Denison had lived in a squalid area of neighbouring Stepney and had been (3) its first almoner. Barnett was impressed by the view that men of education should live in deprived districts like Whitechapel giving leadership and widening life through education. (4)

The residents of Toynbee Hall were closely concerned in the course of the Whitechapel murders. J.A.R. Pimlott wrote, "The deep sense of civic duty which characterised the residents was strikingly illustrated when in the summer of 1888 the Jack the

Ripper murders horrified the East End. Toynbee Hall was in the heart of the terrorised area. One of the victims had been found within a few yards of the rear of the settlement on the site of what

1. Mrs. Barnett was also a school friend of Gertrude Toynbee, a sister of Arnold Toynbee, who was for some years a tutor at Balliol.

2. This is Whitechapel, op. cH., p.12. Later Clement Attlee was 'associated with the settlement and accepted the secretaryship of Toynbee Hall in 1910. C.R. Attlee, As It Happened (Heinemann), 1954, pp.27-28.

3. Edward Denison, 1840-70. For the work of other settlements and wardens doing pioneer work in areas bordering St. Judes, Whitechapel, and Toynbee Hall, see J.A.R. Pimlott, op. cit., pp.6-17.

4. See also C. Booth, op. cit., Third Series, Vol.7, pp.38o-383.

84. (1) was later Balliol House. In August, a Vigilance Association was

formed at St. Judes and the streets were patrolled by members of the

association which included both residents and working men ....

Their conception of their duties was shown by a letter from Hancock

Nunn and Thory Gardiner to 'The Times t which reminded the citizens

of London that the ultimate police force was the whole citizen ,,(2) b o d y.

At first, it was felt that the Toynbee Hall patrols were

unnecessary, but they were justified by the almost immediate improve-

ment in the conduct of the neighbourhood. It led to more adequate

policing, but also the residents were enabled to collect a consider-

able volume of information about neighbourhood conditions. In

this way, several specific abuses were brought to the notice of

the authorities. (3)

The spiritual poverty of Whitechapel was in some ways more

tragic than the crippling material poverty, and social workers felt

that the East End was unrivalled for isolation and the lack of a

community life. Entertainment seemed to be confined to the

music-halls, the public-house and billiard soloons. Spiritual

apathy was manifest from the near empty churches. (4 )

Canon Barnett concerned himself with spiritual baseness and

deprivation, but he had a very strong practical side. His parish

1. Martha Turner (Tabram), 7th August, 1888, at George Yard Buildings (now Gunthorpe Street). 2. J.A.R. Pimlott, op. cit., pp.8l-82. 3. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., p.697 and pp.699-700. 4. Ibid., pp.77-79 and pp.273-274. See also C. Booth, op. cit., First Series, Vol.l, pp.119-l2l.

85. contained most of the crime 'rookeries' which were under attack

during the 'Jack the Ripper' murders.

He was a prime mover in the Artisans Dwelling Act, 1875, which

made it possible to condemn dwellings unfit for habitation, and

ensured that sewers were connected by invoking the Sani ta tion Acts.

Canon Barnett was involved in setting up the East London Dwellings

Company to purchase and rehabilitate slum properties along the

lines laid down by Octavia Hill.(l) Despi te these practical moves 1

his parish report for 1877 reviewed what he had achieved in terms

of his own religious and moral philosophy. lIe wrote that the aim

was to decrease sin not suffering; but sin in its wides sense of

missing 'The Best'. (2)

He opened up the dilapidated schoolroom behind the vicarage,

for he reltstrongly that education was a potent weapon. Certainly,

he was enlightened for that period as he insisted that to create

understanding and develop the imagination was to be more important

at St. Judes School than teaching facts. Craft teaching was (3 ) introduced and the classrooms were made pleasant places.

A Children's Holiday Fund was established to enable slum

children to get out into the country. (4) They responded well to

1. Article "Canon Barnett" by Helen Sachs from This is Whitechapel, op. cit., pp.15-16.

2. Ibid., p.16. 3. Canon Barnett's views on education are detailed in Chapter 23 of his wife's biography of him - Mrs. H.O. Barnett, £R~' 4. This is Whitechapel, op. cit., p.16.

86. this chance to have a break from the grime and squalor of

Whitechapel. Barnett worked in poor relief for thirty years and for some time served on the Whitechapel Board of Guardians. He is, however, best remembered as Warden of Toynbee Hall, where he demonstrated his talent for organisation and his remarkable ability to encourage and inspire graduate settlers and co-workers.(l)

When Canon Barnett was offered the living of St. Judes, White- chapel, in 1872, he soon formulated proposals to put individual settlers into one colony. He was powerfully influenced in his outlook by Octavia Hill, to whom he had been introduced by - , Henrietta Rowland (later his wife).(2) The Barnetts made little

progress in restoring spiritual vitality to the parish, but in the material sense their achievements were considerable. They (3) re-opened schools; started Adult classes; founded a Penny Bank; established a maternity society; built a parish library;(4) arranged flower shows, concerts and entertainments; (5) founded the

East London branch of the University Extension Society.(6) Their

contribution to public work was also impressive. From 1875 onwards,

the name of Mrs. Barnett was closely connected with the development

of pauper schools, and Canon Barnett and his friends were associated with constant compaigns against the use of slum property. The

Children's Country Holiday Fund was opened in 1877 and the Branch of

1. Ibid. , p.17. 2. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, of!. ci t. , p.29. 3. Ibid. , pp.284-292. 4. Ibid. , pp.393-403. 5. Ibid. , pp.563-569. 6. Ibid. , pp.332-9 and pp.499-501.

87. the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants was set

up at St. Judes in 1878. Canon Barnett did not limit himself to

any specific area of interest, for he wrote letters to newspapers,

called meetings and complained vigorously against the poor

standards of public-houses; the Sunday Fair in Petticoat Lane;

the nuisance caused by impurities from dust destructors; and the

conditions in and adjoining the slaughterhouses in Aldgate. (1)

From 1881 onwards, Canon Barnett had organised art exhibitions

of pictures and objects. He was, on one occaSion, reported to the

Bishop of London by the Lord's Day Observance Society for keeping

exhibitions open on Sundays, and was reprimanded. The exhibitions

were, however, extremely successful despite the drawback of being

presented in schoolrooms at the back of St. Judes, and were attended

by many of the illiterate community of Whitechapel. A daily average

of 5,000 visitors appreciated not only the exhibits but the pleasant

and informal atmosphere of the setting. (2) The motto of the move- ment was taken from the writings of John Ruskin, "Life without work

is guilt, and work without art is brutality".(3)

By any standards, Canon Barnett's contribution to the Whitechapel scene was considerable and he was well-qualified to comment on its

situation. When he used the murders' publicity in his letters to

1. Ibid., pp.194-197.

2. Ibid., pp.543-554.

3. Jack London contemptuously dismisses the work of settlements and of those introducing "day nurseries and Japanese art exhibi t8", as futile. He criticises the efforts of those intending to help, with the one exception of Dr. Barnado. See The People of the Abyss, op. cit., pp.304-310.

88. The Times, he became known to a much wider range of people and so his judgments on Whitechapel conditions became better known, and in rational and unemotional terms, but throughout his time at St. Judes he had compaigned and contrived to influence opinion by his own example and involvement.

From the beginning, Canon Barnett was responsible for inviting important visitors to St. Judes, one of whom was Sir Robert Cross, the Home Secretary. (He was preceded by Princess Alice in

November, 1876.)°) His visit was considered to be very important as it was shortly before the amendment to the Artizans Dwelling

Act.

When Canon Barnett died in 1913, it was said that "He had

changed the face of East London". (2) Others said of him that he

did not separate welfare from moralism. This might be true, but

for many people in authority, as well as among the articulate,

attitudes akin to 'laissez-faire' had wide currency. Canon

Barnett was among the leading critics of the established order

who sought to bring about effective changes.

In general, religious leaders of most denominations tended to

agree with the view of Cardinal Newman that he "had never considered

social questions in their relation to faith and had always looked

1. After the turn of the century, Stalin, Litvinov, Marx and Lenin at variouS times visited or stayed in the area. See This is Whitechapel, op. cit., p.31.

2. Obituary - Daily News, 18th June, 1913.

89. 0) upon the poor as objects for compassion and benevolence".

Settlement pioneers, and certainly those at Toynbee Hall in the heart of Whitechapel, did not accept Newman's Views, which were regarded as being almost as unsatisfactory as indifference.

"Many thousands of ppunds were annually poured from West End parishes into the East End for the relief of distress, and events such as an outbreak of cholera or a hard Winter would stimulate the charitable to even greater generosity, to the horror of the more thoughtful of the social workers in East London~ who saw the degradation wrought by intermittent and indiscriminate distribution of Charity.,,(2)

The sources of help for the very poor were few, as they had recourse to begging, charity or the Poor Law. There were many charitable societies in Victoria England, and at the time of the

(3) Whi techapel murders there were listed almost one hundred and forty.

In the Whitechapel district, there was systematiC co-operation between the Board of Guardians and outside charities. (4)

Indiscriminate charity, however, had attracted some of the worst elements and it was this abuse which had led to the formation of the

1. J.A.R. Pimlott, op. cit., p.2. 2. Ibid., p.5. 3. Some of the better known were: The East End Relief and Mission Fund; The Society for the Relief of Distress; The Metropolitan Visiting and Relief Association; The Strangers Friend Society; The Society for the Suppression of Mendicity; there were also many Visiting and Bible Societies. See Chapter 1 of Mrs. H. Bosanquet, Social Work in London 1869-1912 (John Murray), 1914. 4. Select Committee of the House of Lords on POOl' Law Relief, 1888. Reverend Prebendary Billing. Q8.2408-2410.

90. Charity Organisation Society (C.O.S.) in 1870. The C.O.S. attempted to co-ordinate the work of charitable societies and the Poor Law, for it was felt that one of the worst aspects of poverty was the degrading effect it had upon the character, and the result of indiscriminate charity was demoralising.

The Society felt that in cases of exceptional distress, it and other charitable bodies should work with the Poor Law in providing relief as long as the need lasted. Canon Barnett had supported such a policy in Whi techapel during the harsh winter of

1880-1881, when generous weekly payments were made through the

C.O.S. to distressed families, provided the father went into the

(1) workhouse. In Whitechapel, there was strong co-operation between the C.O.S. and the Guardians, outdoor relief having been almost eliminated.(2) However, the Jewish Board of Guardians and the Salvation Army were both criticised by the C.O.S. for indis- criminate charity on a large scale.

By 1883, the year of "The Bi tter Cry" and "How the Poor Live", its leaders were Octavia Hill, Canon Barnett, W.H. Freemantle and

C.S. Loch. However, the C.O.S. was criticised for assuming a social and mental superiority over the poor they visited and for concentrating their activities on schooling them in industry, honesty and thrift,(3)

1. C.L. Mowat, The Charity Organisation Society (Methuen), 1961, p.127.

2. Ibid., pp.116-1l7.

3. B. Webb, op. cit., pp.175-177.

91. I

I The C.O.S. was not only unpopular with other bodies, but had I differences within itself. Three years after "The Bitter Cry", a

change occurred in the leadership of the Society, which influenced I

other charitable bodies. As Beatrice Webb put it, "The break-away I

of Samuel and Henrietta Barnett in 1886 from the narrow and I continuously hardening dogma of the Charity Organisation Society I sent a thrill through the philanthropic world of London". (1) I

Barnett had originally strongly supported the C.O:S. and the

principle that relief must strengthen and not weaken character.

He opposed irresponsible and indiscriminate relief. From 1880,

he began to believe that state action was indispensable, and that

the C.O.S. was not moving in sympathy with the times.(2) The

Reverend Billing also suggested, before the Royal Commission on the

Housing of the Working Classes (1885), that central authority should

assume responsibility. (3)

The work of religious bodies in Whitechapel was considerable

and took many forms. This aspect was almost totally ignored by the

press at the time of the crimes.

Of all the missions, the most spectacular was the Nonconformist mission by William Booth of the Salvation Army. This was based on I I 1. B. Webb, op. cit., pp. 178-179. 2. C.L. Mowat, op. cit., pp.126-l29. The differences within the C.D.S. eventually came to a head in 1895 when Canon Bernett and C.S. Loch I clashed at a meeting on 15th July. C.S. Loch made a personal and vehement attack on Barnett, but by 1895 many others agreed with the I Canon that the C.O.S. worshipped the idols of saving and indepen­ dance from state relief. I 3. RCHWC, op. cit., Qs.5202-5214 and Q.53l7. I

92. a tent on the Mile End waste. The C.O.S. was in total disagreement with most of Booth's schemes, particularly that for helping the unemployed by establishing 'colonies' fOl' relief, giving training (1) and permanent settlement.

The Salvation Army had only two hostels in the East End in

1888 as their social work did not develop until after the publication of In Darkest E~land and the Way Out in 1890. One of these, the

Rescue Home for Women, was in Hanbury Street, the location of the murder of one of the tRipper's' victims, Annie Chapman. It was opened in 1884 and was finally demolished in the 'Blitz' during the 1939-45 war. The other, a Food and Shelter Depot in the West

India Road, was opened in 1888.(2) The Salvation Army concentrated most of its energies and organisation on social work and not on religious influence. (3) The Church Army followed a similar pattern.

Whitechapel was served by three parishes: St. Mary, St •.Jude and St. Mark; and Spi ta1fie lds, which was included in the Whi te- chapel Union, also had three: Christ Church, St. Mary and (4) St. Stephen. The ladies in these parishes formed work groups, making clothing for the poor and articles for sales of work. Each district had its Visiting Society which controlled the funds for

1. C.L. Mowat, op. cit., p.136. 2. Information contained in a letter from Mrs. W. Read (Major), Salvation Army International Headquarters, Queen Victoria Street, London, dated 19th July, 1973. 3. William Booth made the point that it is useless to preach to men whose whole attention is concentrated upon keeping alive. See In Darkest England and the Way Out (Knight), 1890, Preface and pp.44-45. 4. C. Booth, op. cit., Third Series, Vol.2, p.12 and pp.24-26.

93. relief of the poor in the parish. Parish visiting was thorough,

particularly by St. Mary's, Spitalfields, which also provided a

Mutual Loan Society and a Provident Bank for parishoners. Other

denominations, missions and places of worship in these ecclesiastical

parishes also had the tradition of combining religion and relief.(l)

There were six Roman Catholic mission churches in the White-

chapel and St. George's area. The church of St. Mary and Michael

in Commercial Road ministered to about nine thousand Roman Catholics.

The German CatholiCs had a special church in Union Street, near

St. Mary's, Whitechapel. (2) Its most remarkable feature was a

bachelors' club, which formed the backbone of the mission.

The Sisters of Mercy operated a shelter in Crispin Street, the Providence Row Night Refuge, which provided a free bed, supper and breakfast for homeless people. 'No one was turned away on account of religion, race of colour. It was the first abSOlutely , (3) unsectarian charity 1n London. By the time of the Whitechapel murders, it could sleep over three hundred. The position of the

Refuge in Crispin Street was adjacent to Dorset Street, the notoriously criminal area from which branched Miller's Court, scene of the killing of Mary Ke lly.

1. Ibid., pp.17-22 and pp.27-30.

2. Ibid., pp.24-38.

3. Providence Row, 1860-1960 (B.A.S. Printers), pp.2-5.

94. Thc ,Jews had recourse to the Jewish Board of Guardians, (l) a

voluntary organisation which was founded ten years before the

Charity Organisation Society. They were legally entitled to

resort to the Poor Law Boards of Guardians, for maintenance by

the officers of the parish. However, there has always been a

strong Jewish tradition for maintaining their own poor.

During the period of the Whi techapel murders, the offices of

the Jewish Board of Guardians were in premises at 13, Devonshire

Square. They were particularly accessible to the poor of Spital-

fields and Whitechapel. By the last quarter of the nineteenth

century, the Jewish settlement was mainly confined to the east by

Brick Lane and to the north by SPitalfields.(2)

Not all Jewish voluntary organisations were attached to a

part icular synagogue. Independent societies were involved in

"provision for orphans, clothing school children, distributing

food and fuel during the winter and at Festivals, apprenticeship,

marriage portions, lying-in women, invalids, widows, the aged, and,

finally, burials. There was a SOCiety for providing for the wants (3) of the Jewish poor at every stage from the cradle to the grave."

Clothing was a particular favourite with Jewish charities, but

gifts in kind were also provided.

1. Constituted in 1859 from business and professional men representing the Great Synagogue and two other main London City synagogues, Hambro and New. See V.D. Lipman, op. cit., pp.3-4.

2. Ibid., p.5.

3. Ibid., pp.17-18.

95. The Poor Jews' Temporary Shelter in Leman Streot was opened

in 1885 and in the main looked after newcomers who were met on

landing at the Port of. London and taken to the Shelter for food,

help and housing. The Hebrew faith stresses charity towards and

consideration for the poor, and the needy ,Jews of Whitechapel were

helped by issues of bread, meat and coal tickets.(l)

The greatest charitable institution in East London at the time

was that organised by Dr. Barnado, providing homes for deserted

children. He had been active since the early 1870s after he had

discovered eleven ragged boys sleeping on the roof of a building (2) in Petticoat Lane. At the time of the Whitechapel murders,

thousands of destitute children were sleeping rough.

Other less well-known organisations contributed to the

unwieldy structure of philanthropic work in Whi techapel. The

nearest Almshouses belonging to the Skinners' Company were Situated a t Mile End Road (12 houses), but after the passing of the Skinners'

Consolidated Almshouse and Pension Charities Scheme in 1891, they were sold and new premises were erected elsewhere at Palmers Green,

Middlesex. The twelve houses at Mile End Road adjoined the Trinity Almshouses. (3)

1. This is Whitechapel, op. eit., The Jewish Community, p.B.

2. Ibi':!., p.13; J. London, op. clt., pp.309-310; C. Booth, op. c:1t .. , Third Series, Vol.2, pp.46-4B, and First Series, Vol.l, p.127.

3. Information contained in a letter from the Office of the Clerk to the Skinners' Company, Skinners' Hall, 11 th January, 1974.

96. There were twenty-three clubs in Whitechapel which Charles

Booth classified in four groups: SOCial, Political, Philanthropic and Proprietary. In the main, proprietary clubs were disreputable and catered for gambling and betting for 'members only'. They were frequently raided by the police. Thirteen such clubs were (1) listed in the Whitechapel district.

Also in the area were three social clubs and one political.

The difference between social and political clubs was slight, as social clubs had a flavour of the political, and political clubs did not develop unless accompanied by a strong social side. They provided drink, entertainment evenings, concerts, indoor games, lectures and discussions.

Philanthropic clubs were usually attached to churches or missions, and were started and supported and managed by outside influence. Not all were merely adjuncts to missions, for a few philanthropic clubs were, like the 'United Brothers' in Commercial

Street, self-supporting and self-managed. There were six philanthropic Clubs in Whitechapel, making a total of twenty-three from the four types classified. (2) All were superintended (not self-managed) and usually teetotal, whereas with the exception of the Jews Club and Institute in Great Alie Street (1,400 members), (3) all social and political Clubs sold beer.

1. C. Booth, op. cit., First Series, Vol.I, pp.103-106.

2. This distribution was not uniform through the East End. For example, the next in total, Hackney, with eighteen, had nine political, one SOCial, six philanthropic and only two proprietary clubs. Ibid., p.I05-106.

3. Ibid., p.95.

97. Profit from the sale of beer was essential to keep most clubs

self-supporting. Brewers often lent money towards fittings for

opening a club and did not press repayment or closely check security if they felt large profits would follow from drink consumed. The Jews' Club, however, was not only teetotal, but admitted both sexes to membership and prohibited card-playing.

The average subscription to clubs was sixpence per month and sixpence entrance fee. Repairs, decorations and alterations were (1) often done during the evening, by members.

Most Boys' Clubs were managed in connection with religious organisations. Those clubs with no obvious religious attachments were devoted to the improvement of character. Girls' Clubs were more important in a social sense which was independent of religious . (2) organisation, and were based on classes and recreat1on. Charles

Booth commented that girls tended to marry later as a result of a more restrained and moral attitude to life. (3)

Dr. Halsted recalls that when he and Wilfred Grenfell (the

Medical Missionary) were on the staff of the London Hospital together in the 1880s, they turned the ground floor and garden of their house into a boys' club and recreational centre and took over a boys' club in Whi techapel. He and Grenfell gave them hard discipline based on athletiCS, boxing and gym work. They levied one penny a week from

1. Ibid., pp.96-97.

2. C. Booth, op. cit., Final Volume, p.79.

3. For the clubs at St. Judes, St. Marys and Toynbee, see Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., pp.26-27, 122-3, 221-2 and 460-6.

98. the boys to impress upon them the fact that one does not get

things for nothing.(l)

Five Friendly Societies operated in the Whitechapel district

and there were also 'loan and investment societies' usually based

on a public house and commonly called "publican's thrift". (2)

Whitechapel was an area of acute distress but it was not

neglected by vOluntary effort, and some of its poorest residents made efforts to improve their lives. Against these attempts, the weight

of the problems was massive.

It was held that there was in London a vast reservoir of pent- up emotion waiting to be tapped. Twice it had been inflamed and aroused: once over the 'Bulgarian Atrocities' situation and again in 1883 by the publication of "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London",

"How the Poor Live" and other art icles. (3)

In 1888, 'Jack the Ripper' concentrated the emotion on White- chapel. The reaction was powerful, for the attitude to the problem of poverty could no longer be based on ignorance of the conditions or apathy. Hitherto, poverty was often conceived in abstract terms, as were wages and labour, and thought to be a result of moral weakness or as an inevitable concomitant of the industrial system.(4)

1. D.G. Halsted, op. cit., pp.39-44.

2. C. Booth, op. cit., First Series, Vol.l, pp.106-1l2. See also P.H.J.H. Gosden, Self-Help (Batsford), 1973, pp.77-1l5, 260-6, 274-6, 278-83. Also see above p.41.

3. See J.A.R. Pimlott, op. cit., pp.22-24.

4. Ibid., p.!.

99. The 'Ripper' tapped the emotions and skirted the classical theories on poverty. This was a different slant at a time when new ways of looking at chronic distress were being considered.

In 1892, almost four years after the murder of Mary Kelly,

Canon Barnett established a Toynbee Commission, (1) which consisted of Canon Scott Holland, the Reverend Hugh Price-Hughes, Sidney and (2) Beatrice Webb, together with some of the East End M.Ps. They were to consider solutions to East End distress. Among their suggestions the main recommendation was an extension of local relief works for the respectable working-class. By this time, the excitement of the murders had long gone, together with the emotional impetus from the public for immediate action. Once the sensationalism of the crimes died down so did much of the concern and eventually Whitechapel was left with the same voluntary structure that had existed before the murders took place.

Ten years after the IVhitechapel murders, the residents of

Toynbee Hall decided to patrol the streets at night from eleven to two during the winter of 1899-1900. The practice was to be based exactly on the methods employed during the patrols of 1888-1889.

Its purpose was to demonstrate the improvement in social conditions in the decade since 'Jack the Ripper'. The residents reported not only on the better sooial situation, but on the extra vigilance and the tighter efficiency of the police.

1. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., pp.63D-631. See also G. Stedman Jones, op. cit., p.305. 2. Beatrice Webb helped in the management of working-class dwellings in the East End of London, particularly Katherine Buildings, a double-faced building in five tiers, situated close to St. Katherine Docks. She also assisted at Wentworth Dwellings in the same region. These dwellings came under the East End Dwellings Company, which had been started by some members of the C.O.S. 100. The Whitechapel murders tended to focus the public mind upon violence and depravity, which minimised the mean and monotonous condition of Whitechapel known to social reformers. The image of

Whitechapel as a neglected area noticed only at moments of crisis, has survived from the eighties of 'Jack the Ripper' to the present day. P.J. Keating maintains that the general view handed down to us is a mingling of Edward Denison, Canon Barnett, WaIter Besant, . (1) Arthur Morrison and 'Jack the R1pper'.

From the evidence of this chapter, the murderer had to share any contribution to Whitechapel improvement with many others, although he may have helped to unite opinions of groups which were not pulling together.

canon Barnett frequently commented on "a sense of sin" being the starting point of progress. Beatrice Webb defined it further:

flWhen I say the consciousness of sin, I do not mean the consciousness of personal sin: the agricultural labourers on Lord

Shaftesbury's estate were no better off than others in Dorsetshire;

Ruskin and William Morris were surrounded in their homes with things which were costly as well as beautiful; John Stuart Mill did not alter his modest but comfortable way of life when he became a

Socialist; and H.M. Hyndman gloried in the garments habitual to the members of exclusive West End Clubs. The consciousness of sin was a collective or class consciousness; a growing uneasiness,

1. P.J. Keating, Fact and Fiction in the East End in The Victorian City, op. cit., Vo1.2, p.586.

101. amounting to conviction that the industrial organisation, which had yielded rent, interest and profits on a stupondous scale, had failed to provide a decent livelihood and tolerable conditions for a majority of the inhabitants of Great Britain.,,(l)

Despite this, one often underestimates the enormous volume of practical effort which was concentrated on IVhitechapel. Charlos

Booth commented on this aspect when he estimated the effect of re ligious influences in the Whitechapel parishes. lilt is very difficult to give any adequate idea of the ext~nt of the religious and philanthropic effort that has been made in the IVhitechapel district. No statistical device would be of much avail to measure the work done, and description fails to realise it. Great as the effort is in many other parts of London, it is greatest here.

Nowhere else are the leading churches so completely organised to cover the whole field of their work; and nowhere else are the auxiliary missions on so huge a scale."(2)

1. B. lVebb, op. cit., p.155.

2. C. Booth, op. cit., Third Series, Vo1.2, pp.50-5I.

102. CHAPTER 6

THE METROPOLITAN POLICE

The Whitechapel murders came at a bad time for the Metropolitan

Police, for they followed hard on a two-year period in which the new Commissioner, Sir Charles Warren, had not only struggled with the problems of public unrest, but had indicated that he was unsympathetic towards the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard.

When the sudden change of emphasis from riot-control to murder detection came with the murders in late 1888, these factol's were very important, for they contributed indirectly to the situation in which the murderer could operate successfully, and through this involved public emotion and concern at many different and vari.ed levels.

Warren's predecessor, Sir Edmund Henderson, resigned after a meeting of the unemployed on 8th February, 1886, in Trafalgar Square, had degenerated into a riot. Shops were looted, clubs attacked, police re-inforcements misdirected and military support was summoned.

On the two days following, alarm and paniC spread. In Whi techapel, mobs rampaged in the Commercial Road area.(l)

General Sir Charles Warren, a distinguished soldier of the

Egyptian campaign, was recalled from abroad in March, 1886, to

1. See G. Stedman Jones, op. cit., pp.290-293.

103. re-organise the force on more military lines in order to deal with mob violence. Demonstrations continued but the police became more (1) resolute, often supported by armed guardsmen.

Warren's immediate contribution was the introduction of five military officers. (2) He also created two new superintendents,

168 inspectors and 196 sergeants in 1887, but the number of

constables actually dropped to 89, whereas he treated the C.I.D.

(and its chief, Monro)(3) with such contempt that this branch was not considered important enough to be mentioned in his Annual

Police Report for 1887. Attention was now paid to such matters as saluting, rigid bearing, button-cleaning, drill, the length of whiskers and boot-polishing. Warren's reports were noted for their

brevity and the fact that he omitted all reference to crime in

London, but gave space to questions of boots, saddles and the abolition of truncheon-cases.(4)

Dr. Peter Warren, grandson of Sir Charles, defended his grand-

father after a television programme in 1973 had criticised the ( 5) handling of the 'Ripper' case. Amongst other comments, he wrote,

1. Ibid., pp.295-6. 2. General Sir Charles Warren held office until 1st December, 1888, when he was succeeded as Commissioner of the Metropolitan police by James Monro (1888-90) and Colonel Sir Edward Bradford (1890- 1903). Sir Melville Macnaghten did not hold office during the murders period but was Chief Constable from 1889-1903. 3. Munro held the post of Assistant Commissioner from 1884-88, when he was succeeded by Sir Robert Anderson (1888-1901). The Assistant Commissioner was Chief of the C.r.D. at Scotland Yard. 4. Report of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis for 1887, Vol. LV 11 , pp. 349-352. 5. Radio Times, 2nd August, 1973.

104. "During his two-and-a-half years as Chief Commissioner there were very serious problems of civil unrest. Compared with this constant

threat, the Whitechapel murders, though horrifying, were to some e~tent 'chicken feed' for the hard-pressed Metropolitan Police

Administra tion. tI

At the beginning of his tenure of office, Sir Charles Warren wrote in the Office Regula tion Book, "The numerous decisions of the

Commissioner on minor matters would make the Office Regulation Book very cumbrous and impair its usefulness" (Office Regulation No.128,

Book 10). Despite this, one cannot but be impressed by the vast number of orders and regulations signed by Warren, and by the diversity of the problems he dealt with in the notebooks. (1)

We are apt to forget all this 'business' when considering the

IVhi techapel murders, assuming tha t the furore caused by the murders occupied entirely the attention of the Metropolitan Police. However, it does appear that there was a slight diminution of office regulations and notices duri.ng the period of the crimes, but it is difficult to assess whether this was for any other reason.

1. Between Office Regulation No.128 on 12th February, 1887, and No.197 on 26th July, 1887, some of the topics were defaulters; e~penditure; finance regulations; supply of stationery; gratuities for watching brothels; authority for augmentation of staff; charges on the police Fund; accommodation and married quarters; medical certifi­ cates; cleaning allowances; acts of bravery; pensions of con­ stables; requisition; orders for Boards of Survey and corre­ spondence procedures. All concluded with the directive, "Forwarded to Mr. Monro for his information". During 1888, the notebooks were similarly diverse in content. Warren had to decide that an officer who changed his residence for his own cOIlveniHnce had to pay the expense of altering his telegraph line. Just before

becoming embroiled in the 'Ripper I murders, Warren approved of Ita charge of two shillings being made to any police officer who may be authorised to receive, a Jubilee medal, in lieu of one lost".

105. In addition to dealing with riots, demonstrations and

disturbances, much of Warren's time in 1887 was spent in an inquiry Cl) into the Cass Case. A false charge had been made by a police

constable against a single woman who had been taking a walk late at

night in Regent Street, on Jubilee Night. The charge was of

soliciting. When the woman's respectability was established

beyond doubt, political repercussions eventually led to the defeat

of the Government in the House of Commons. The inquiry did little

to improve the reputation of the police. Warren blundered by

making no apologies and his attitude throughout was considered to (2) show bad grace.

October, 1887, saw huge gatherings of the unemployed in

Trafalgar Square. Tradesmen and public were bitter in their

complaints and letters reaching Scotland Yard were mordantly

critical of the Commissioner. It was pOinted out that the Lord

Mayor of London had been convicted in 1,'06 for criminal negligence

in not supressing riots. Sir Charles, in agitation, wrote to the

Home Secretary (Matthews) that escort duties against mobs and excessive duties were such that the men could not continue, as they

had done over a period of eighteen days. He asked for authorisation (3) Uto take such measures as I may consider to be necessaryu.

1. Sir John Moylan, Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police (Putnam), 1929, p.46 and p.71. Josephine Butler wrote to Mr. George W. Johnson on 19th July, 1887, "The discussions following Miss Cass' s case will be useful and educa tingH .

2. D. McCormick, op. cit., p.58.

3. T.A. Critchley, The Conquest of Violence (Constable), 1970, p.152.

106. In his control of the Metropolitan Police, the Secretary of

State (while constantly in personal consultation with the Commissioner)

acts through the channel with the advice of permanent officials of the

Home Office. This Sir Charles Warren refused to recognise. He

resented any intervention by permanent staff of the Home Office in

Metropolitan police administration.

During late October and early November, Warren's letters to the

Home Secretary became more determined in tone. He said the dis­

organised mob was beginning to obtain cohesion. Three thousand

could be summoned in two to three minutes. Relations between Warren

and Matthews became increasingly strained. Eventually, an order

was given on 8th November, 1887, to close Trafalgar Square against

political meetings.(l) This move was applauded by The Times and

attacked by the Pall Mall Gazette as "an outrage on the rights and

liberties enjoyed from time immemorial by every inhabitant of the

Metropolis .... ". On 13th November ('Bloody Sunday'), many arrests

were made on charges of assault and disorderly conduct. Seventy-

seven police were injured.

About two hundred demonstrators needed some kind of medical

treatment after the clashes, although it was reported in The Times

that they had received the broken heads they deserved.(2) Some

police constables felt that the respect between them and the general

public had been lost. The Commissioner came in for severe criticism

1. ~., pp.153-l54.

2. See also Illustrated London News, 14th and 15th November, 1887.

107. for "military high-handedness" at the time of these riots. On

18th November, he announced an indefinite ban on meetings in

Trafalgar Square and twenty thousand special constables were sworn in for two months. A second demonstration, on 20th November, was very quiet and one policeman was recorded as injured.(l) There was a very strong feeling against any attempt to give the police military qualities. In 1887, it was felt that most demonstrators were restrained and that most of the policemen were tolerant, otherwise rioting would have been more violent.(2)

There was a gradual falling-off of violence in the first months of 1888 until, as Sir John Moylan states, (3) "Jack the Ripper caused crimes to take the place of disorder as the preoccupation of both police and public". The murders occurred close to the borders of the Metropolitan Police district and the City, and there was some friction between the respective Commissioners. The murders brought

Sir Charles Warren into sharper conflict with Home Secretary Matthews.

Again, Warren sought authority to take whatever action he thought necessary, as he had requested before at the time of the Trafalgar (4 ) Square riots. Matthews once more refused him.

Warren drafted large numbers of plain clothes men into the area and the City police also doubled patrols, in order that all parts could be visited at intervals of a few minutes. There was a vast

1. T.A. Critchley, op. cit., pp.154-155. 2.JE.ig., pp.159. 3. Sir John Moylan, op. cit., pp.48-49. 4. T.A. Critchley, op. cit., p.158.

108. congregation of both police and civilian volunteer patrol groups.

Colonel Mounsell (Chief of the district) directed much of this from

Leman Street Police Station,(l) in Whitechapel.

F.P. Wensley, (2) who joined the MetropOlitan Police in 1887 at the age of twenty-two, maintained that the police were regarded in

Whi techape 1 as the common enemy. No one submitted to arrest without a fight and he spent a total of ninety-four days incapacitated by (3) injuries received as a cORstable on duty.

The police were largely recruited from the working-classes, but not often from that part of the workers which formed the very poor of Whitechapel. (4) Although crime prevention and detection were important functions of the police, they often dealt with some aspects of poverty, as a kind of linking social service agency, resulting from the investigation of matters concerned with children, health, safety or immorality.

Canon Barnett held a good opinion of policemen on the beat in

Whitechapel and marvelled at their patient handling of situations under almost unendurable provocation. (5)

1. The Daily Chronicle, 8th October, 1888. The same report contains details of police procedure in Whitechapel during the murders' scare.

2. F.P. Wensley, Detective Days (Cassell), 1931, pp.288-290.

3. An advertisement of over 4,000 words concerning candidates f require­ ments and opportunities for recruitment to the Metropolitan Police as constables, appeared on Tuesday, 24th January. 1888, in the Metropolitan police Office (Police Orders), pp.130-136. It is interesting to compare this immense detail with the terse advertise­ ments (sometimes less than fifty words) for today's force.

4. 70 per cent of the Metropolitan Police came from the provinces. C. Booth, op. cit., First Series, Vol.3, pp.86-90.

5. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., pp.98-99.

109. The greatest problem of the police hitherto in Whitechapel had been organised gangs. The Old Nichol Gang and the Hoxton

Market Gang were vicious enough but two of the most feared and notorious were the Blind Beggar Mob and the High Rip Gang (1) which blackmailed prostitutes, robbed, assaulted, garotted and specialised in fleecing drunken sailors and preying upon the defenceless foreign element. Flower· and Dean Street was double- patrolled by the pOlice who were grieviously over-worked before the murders added a further burden for them to carry. (2)

During the last four months of 1888, feeling ran high against

Scotland Yard and the C.I.D. for their failure to find the murderer, and this feeling was particularly intense in Whitechapel. It became acute wi th the killing of Annie Chapman on 8th September, but after the double murder of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine

Eddowes during the early hours of the morning of Sunday,

30th September, hysteria gripped the area.(3)

During the weekend of 8th-9th September, Dr. Phillips, the

Divisional Police Surgeon, and his assistant spent considerable time in attendance on victims of assault. The murder of Annie

Chapman was blamed for building up a climate of intense excitement. (4) . In The Times l.t was said that the atmosphere was "as favourable

1. D. McCormick, _op. cH., p.19. See also F.P. Wensley, Ope cit., pp. lOO-lOG •

2. W. Dew, ~ cit., p.lOl.

3. Ibid., pp. 103-109.

4. 10th September, p.9.

110. to the escape of the assassin as it is dangerous to innocent persons whose appearance or conduct is sufficiently irregular to excite suspicion" . The Daily News commented, "a touch will fire the whole

tl district. in the mood in which it is now •

On the 10th September, sixteen tradesmen from the Spitalfields district met in the Crown, Mile End Road, and formed a Vigilance

Committee for patrol work under the chairmanship of George Lusk, with Joseph Aarons as Treasurer and Secretary. They issued a statement in which they maintained the police force was inadequate and so they intended to offer a reward for information leading to (1) the capture of the murderer. Patrol work was undertaken by trade unions, graduatcs doing settlement work at Toynbee Hall and

Whitechapel costermongers. All were integrated in the activities of the Whi techapel Vigilance Committee.

The bitter cri tic ism of Sir Charles Warren and 0 f Home

Secretary, Henry Matthews, kept the focus of interest on WhitechapeL

Ma tthews was described as Ha source of miserable weakness and a discredit to the present administration". (2) It was suggested that he be promoted out of the way as he knew nothing, heard nothing and did not intend to do anything. The C.I.D. was criticised as utterly hopeless and worthless. It was noted that Anderson, the new Assistant CommiSSioner, was on holiday in Switzerland, with the result that "the scandalous exhibition of stupidity and ineptitude revealed at the East End inquests, and the immunity enjoyed by

1. The Penny Illustrated Newspaper, 15th September, 1888. See also News of the World, 16th September, 1888.

2. The Daily Telegraph, 12th September, 1888.

111. criminals, murder after murder, has angered and disgusted public

feeling".

Indignation against Warren and Matthews intensified after the ( 1) 'double event' murders of 29th September. A petition was sent

to the Home Secretary from Whitechapel tradesmen, who complained

that as protection and security were not being provided shoppers

would not venture out after dusk, and trade was being seriously ( 2) affected as a consequence.

There was also considerable discussion on the advisability of

offering a reward for information leading to the capture of the (3) murderer. The recently formed Whi techapel Vigilance Committee

contacted the Home Secretary on the subject, but the offer was (4) refused.

The Idlling of Catherine Eddowes in Mitre Square had taken

place within the square mile of the City of London, which had its

own police force. The City Police, backed by the Lord Mayor and

the City Fathers, offered a £500 reward for information leading to

the discovery and conviction of the murderer. The sum was on behalf (5 of the City corporation. ) Many organisations immediately

1. See Appendix A, pp.152-l58. 2. See the Daily Chronicle, 3rd October, 1888. 3. At the conclusion of the inquest on Mary Ann Nicholls on 23rd September, the foreman of the jury suggested offering a reward for the capture of the killer, and offered £25 out of his own pocket. 4. See News of the World, 16th and 23rd September, 1888. 5. See the Daily Telegraph, 2nd October, 1888.

112. ------

responded by giving money in order to supplement the reward. There

were several private offers from various sources, but no move from

the Metropolitan police.

There were many pleas for the Government to offer a reward for

useful information on the killings. Despite the pressure from some

newspapers, foremen of 'Ripper' inquest 'juries, magistrates and

Samuel Montague (M.P. for Whitechapel) for rewards to be offered, (1)

the Home Office remained obdurate in its refusals to do so.

However, the murder in Mitre Square was within the boundaries of

the City of London police and they were not subject to Home Office

regulations.

Some bankers and merchants in the City wished to contribute to

the City Corporation Fund without this appearing as a criticism of

the Conservative Government they supported. Accordingly, they

collected £300 and the editor of the Financial News sent it on their

behalf to the Home Secretary so that he could give this reward in

the Government's name. It was returned immediately. (2)

There were several suggestions for spending the £300. The

editor of the Financial Times was approached by Thomas Kelly of the

Dock Labourers' Society and a leader of the Workingmen' s Vigilance

and Patrol Committee for £150 towards their expenses in setting up

seventy trained men to patrol Whitechapel during darkness. (3) When

1. Penny Illustrated Newspaper, 15th September, 1888.

2. T. Cu11en, op. cit., pp.133-134.

3. Ibid., p.135.

113. no money was forthcoming and with the onset of winter, the meetings

of the Committee at the Three Tuns, Aldgate, petered out.

Meanwhile, the dissa tisfaction with Henry Matthews, the Home

Secretary, was growing. He had been in office for two years, but

from the beginning he had been opposed by some commentators:

"Matthews, the new Home Secretary, has been described as 'a depart-

mental success but a parliamentary failure'. Educated abroad, a

catholic and a bachelor, he had been called to the Bar and appeared

in both the Tichborne and the Dilke trials. He had only had six

years in parliament, followed by a twelve-year gap; and now it was

his personal friendship with Lord Randolph Churchill, it i.s said, (1) which led to his be ing given the Home Off ice. " Matthews' ... deciSions were frequently criticised by Labouchere in ~th and

W.T. Stead in the Pall Mall Gazette.

From 1888 to 1890, there are several references to Mr. Matthews and his incompatibility at the Home Office, in the communications

between Queen Victoria and Lord salisbury.(2) On 31st October,

1888, during the height of the murder period, Salisbury wrote:

"Mr. Matthews has certainly not been as successful as was hoped.

There is innocence of the ways of the world which no one would have expected to find in a criminal lawyer of sixty .••• the difficulty is

to get Mr. Matthews out. It may be he would take a Judgeship, and that the Lord Chancellor would be willing to give it to him."

1. Quoted from C. Pulling, Mr. Punch and the police (Butterworths), 1964, p. 116 •

2. a.E. Buckle, op. cit., pp.445, 450, 616, 623, 626-7, 647 and 661-2.

114. On 17th November (eight days after the murder of Mary Kelly) ,

the Queen wrote in her Journal, at Windsor Castle: "Saw Lord

Salisbury, and, of course, talked over all the different topics of

interest .•.• of Mr. r.1atthews, who is certainly not ;fit for the

Home Office". However, despite the views of both Queen and Prime

Minister, Henry Matthews continued in office for more than two (l) years.

Different procedures were adopted by the Metropoli tan police during the 'Ripper' scare. The City of London Police was involved as the murder in nii tre Square was within its jurisdiction. Major

Henry Smith was Assistant Commiss ioner of the City Police at that

time and he wrote afterwards: tI In August, 1888, when I was desperately keen to lay my hands on the murderer, I made such arrangements as I thought would insure success. I put nearly a third of the force into plain clothes, with instructions to do everything which, under ordinary circumstances, a constable should not do. It was subversive of discipline; but I had them well supervised by senior officers. The weather was lovely, and I have little doubt they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, sitting on door steps, smoking their pipes, hanging about public houses, and (2) gossiping with all and sundry." According to Denis Halsted, who at the time was a doctor on the staff of the London Hospital, the East End was alive with plain clothes men, lurking in alleys, but these detectives were still conspicuous enough to the observant.

1. A cartoon in Fun, 21st November, 1888, suggested that Matthews followed WarrM's example and reSign from office.

2. Sir Henry Smith, From Constable to Commissioner (Chatto and Windus), 1910, p.148.

115. Sir Charles Warren did not relax the discipline of the

Metropolitan Police to a similar degree, but, even so, they had

orders to stop every man who was walking or riding late at night

or in the early hours of the morning, until he gave a satisfactory

account of himself. Warren had hundreds of his men searching. (1)

Some were in uniform, others in plain clothes, whilst all manner

of disguises were employed, even including constables dressed as

women. The plain clothes men carried truncheons(2) during the

period of the murders, and often had to protect innocent 'suspects'

of mob law from attack. Streets in the danger area were patrolled

every few minutes and dark obscure alleys and courts were

periodically visited. Despite the fact that all suspicious

characters were stopped and questioned, the murder in Mitre Square

took place during a fourteen minute period when it was unguarded.

Inspector Abberline was seconded from Scotland Yard to take

charge of the case. He was a competent officer who had been

formerly Detective Inspector of the Whitechapel Division

(Division H)(3) and he had a deep knowledge of the East End, its

criminals and its crimes. (4) However, he was late on the case, and

critically viewed by journalists, who, in their turn, had been

snubbed by Sir Charles. Indeed, the only backing he appeared to

receive from Warren was in the matter of manpower. The East End

1. The Daily Chronicle, 8th October, 1888. 2. W. Dew, op. cit., pp.105-ll2. 3. Division H (Whitechapel) was an area of 2.08 square miles and based on the five Stations at Commercial Street, Leman Street, Arbour Square, lVapping and Shadwoll. Its establishment was 592, i.e. 1 Superintendent, 29 Inspectors, 46 Sergeants, 516 Constables. P.P., 1889, XL, p.341. 4. D. Rumbelow, op. cit., p.84.

116. was flooded with police reinforcements, much to the derision of

the newspaper editors. (1)

Sir Charles Warren was also involved in an unhappy farce

involving bloodhounds. (2) In this he acted contrary to the advice

of his senior officers, who tried to persuade him of the hopeless- ness of attempting to track down 'Jack the Ripper' by the use of

bloodhounds, particularly in such an area as Whitechapel.

Mr. Edwin Brough, a dog-breeder, arrived in London from Scarborough, with his hounds, Barnaby and Burgha, and several inconclusive experiments were tried in Regent's Park and Hyde Park. On two occasions, Sir Charles himself played the part of the hunted (3) man. One unkind observer suggested that an enemy of Warrents a t the Home Office had persuaded him to do this. What is certain is that on more than one occasion the dogs tracked down complete strangers. The whole affair turned into complete fiasco when the two hounds were lost during practice on Tooting Common. Warren was mercilessly ridiculed, caricatured and cartooned, although it was quite unfair to hold him entirely responsible.(4)

The murders, and the ineffectiveness of the police, resulted in such a complete lack of confidence that the Board of Works in the Whitechapel district communicated with Sir Charles over proposals for strengthening the police in the neighbourhood. His reply was

1. The Daily Chronicle, 8th October, 1888. 2. The Daily Telegraph, 9th October, 1888. 3. The Times, 10th October, 1888. 4. The Daily Chronicle, 13th November, 1888.

117. read to a meeting of the Board held on 15th October, 1888. (1) A long letter included such observations as "victims actually but unwittingly connive at their own destruction .... place themselves in such a position that they can be slaughtered without a sound being heard. It is not desirable that I should enter into particulars as to what the police are d.oing .... it is most important for good results that our proceedings should not be published .•.. the very fact that you may be unaware of what the

Detectivo Dopartment is doing is only the stronger proof that it is doing its work with security and efficiency." The Board was

not impressed by the letter J but 'no further action was taken after a proposal to do so had been defeated by sixteen votes to fifteen.

The 'Ripper' murders inspired a wave of hooliganism and unrest, particularly in the danger area of Whi techapel. In the main, trouble was caused by youths pretending to be the killer and so tormenting old ladies and frightening young girls. Some attacks by drunks were aggressive and dangerous. Many petty and violent attacks were evidenced against both prostitutes and other (2) women, indiscriminately and for no apparent reason.

All the troubles of this unhappy period for the Metropolitan

Police came to a climax when Sir Charles Warren wrote an article which was printed in the November issue of Murray's Magazine. He

1. Whitechapel Board of Works Minute Book No.16, pp.473-474.

2. See: News of the World, 16th and 23rd September; The Star, 4th, 6th October and 10th November; the Daily Chronicle, lOth November; and The Times, 12th November, amongst many. See also, T. Cullen, op. cit., pp.6l-62 and pp.138-l39 and pp.183-l84; D. McCormick, ~ cit., p.117; D. Rumbelow, op. cit., pp.85-87.

118. had not obtained prior permission from the Home secretary to do this. The contents of the article seemed to unite all Sir Charles' critics against him. In particular, he deplored the lack of courage by successive governments to make a firm stand against mob violence. On more dangerous ground, he asserted the supremacy of the police Commissioner over the Head of C. LD. (the post Monro resigned) when a division of power existed between these two separate bureaux. He also denied that there had been any attempt to make soldiers of the police, and, indeed, to be fair to him, it did seem that he subscribed fully to the idea of the police as a citizen body.(l) However, in connection with this article,

Warren refused to admit the right of the Secretary of State to apply the regulations under the Official Secrets Act to the

Commissioner of police or to any member of the police force.

(2) On 8th November, Warren was reproved by the Home Secretary in the Commons for the article which had appeared in Murray's

Magazine, after which Matthews directed a subordinate to write a letter to Warren, enclosing a copy of a Home Office circular which forbade officers of the Department to publish any work relating to the Department without the permission of the Home Secretary.

The tone of the letter throughout was cold and official. In reply,

1. The Star, 9th November, contains a report of Home Secretary Matthews' answer on the subject in the House on 8th November, 1888.

2. In the meantime, before the matter of the article had been discussed in the House of Commons, the police had discovered an effigy of Sir Charles Warren awaiting burning, during Guy Fawkes' Night celebrations on Clerkenwell Green. Reynolds News suggested some allegorical figures for the Lord Mayor's Show: Sir Charles Warren accompanied by a group of blindfolded detectives, an effigy of 'Jack the Ripper' and a tableau of Whitechapel victims. T. Cullen, op. cit., pp.16D-161.

119. Warren stated that had he known that the circular of 27th May,

1789, applied to the Metropolitan Police Force, he would not have

accepted the post of Commissioner. He added that he and the

Metropolitan Police were governed by statute and the Home Secretary

had no power under this statute of giving orders to the police. (1)

For the third time, he tendered his resignation and this time it

was accepted.

It took two or three days for the resignation to travel

through official channels and during this period 'Jack the Ripper'

performed his final and most ghastly outrage, on the eve of the

Lord Mayor's Show, 9th November. Whether this atrocity helped

Matthews to make up his mind is difficult to determine, but twice (2) before he had refused Warren's off~ers of resignation. The announcement of the resignation to the House of Commons was not made until 12th November, when the news was greeted by Opposition (3) cheers. On the lOth November, a Cabinet meeting had been held at Downing Street; this had been quickly summoned by Salisbury following a sharply worded telegram from Queen Victoria in Scotland, complaining about the lack of government action On the murders:

"lOth November, 1888. This new most ghastly murder shows the absolute necessity for some very decided action. All the courts must be lit and our detectives improved. They are not

1. Matthews wrote to the Queen on 10th November giving his official account of the affair. G.E. Buckle, op. cit., pp.448-44~.

2. Daily Telegraph, lOth November, Leader Column.

3. See Evening News, 12th and 14th November.

120. what they should be. You promised when the first murder took place to consult with your colleagues about it~"

Salisbury replied by telegram:

"lOth November, 1888. Humble duty. At Cabinet to-day it was resolved to issue a Proclamation offering free pardon to anyone who should give evidence as to the recent murder except the actual . ,,(l) perpetrator of the cr1me.

A letter from the Queen to the Home Secretary, dated

13th November, 1888, contains some interesting points on both the resignation and the murders. It read:

"The Queen has received with sincere regret Mr. Matthews letter of the 10th, in which he reports the resignation of Sir Charles

Warren.

It would, of course, be impossible to recognise Sir Charles

Warren's contention that he was not under the orders of the Secretary of State, but the Queen fears this resignation will have a bad effect in encouraging the law-breakers to defy the police who, under Sir Charles Warren, have always done their duty admirably.

At the same time the Queen fears that the detective department is not so efficient as it might be. No doubt tho recent murders in Whi techapel were committed in circumstances whieh made detection

1. G.E. Buckle, op. cit., p.447.

121. very difficult; still, the Queen thinks that, in the small area

where these horrible crimes have been perpetrated, a great number

of detectives might be employed, and that every possible suggestion

might be carefully examined and, if practicable, followed.

Have the cattle boats and passenger boats been examined?

Has any investigation been made as to the number of single men

occupying rooms to themselves?

The murderer's clothes must be saturated with blood and be kept

somewhere.

Is there sufficient surveillance at night?

These are some of the questions that occur to the Queen on

reading the accounts of this horrible crime. ,,(1)(2)

Strangely enough, the resignation of Sir Charles Warren

coincided with the last murder of 'Jack the Ripper'. All recognised authorities on the crimes are agreed that the killing of Mary Kelly on 9th November was the last murder that for any (3) valid reason could be attributed to the 'Ripper'. Some journal-

ists labelled Mary Kelly as "Warren's Celebration". Certainly, the

failure of Scotland Yard to trap the killer has been considered as

1. The Queen was referring to the murder of Mary Kelly.

2. G.E. Buckle, op. cit., 13th November, 1888, p.449.

3. See Appendix A, pp.161-162.

122. its greatest period of incompetence. Warren's place was filled by

former Assistant Commissioner Monro, who, ironically enough, often . (1) had his moments of conflict wIth Matthews.

A large number of police held IVhitechapel in check in the (2) tense atmosphere which prevailed after Mary Kelly's murder.

Matters were probably aggravated by the first anniversary of

'Bloody Sunday' falling on this weekenCL

Whi techapel was free from similar crimes for the next seven months. After this period, several miscellaneous crimes of

violence and murder were committed which bore some re$emblance to

the Whitechapel murders, but these were ruled to be unconnected,

chiefly on medical evidence.

Gradually the interest died down, but Hansard records references to the murders and to the Whitechapel region for some

time afterwards. Two questions were asked in the House on

29th July, 1889, one concerning the offer of a reward and the other about an assault in Whitechapel. On 3rd July, 1890, there was a question about William Brodie who confessed to murder in Whitechapel, and on the same day a question by Mr. Montague (Whitechapel) dealing with crime and vice in the Flower and Dean Street area.

There were also questions after the 'Ripper' style murder of

Frances Cole on 13th February, 1891. A man called Saddler was

1. G.E."Buckle, op. cit •• pp.616 and 623.

2. T. Cullen, op. cit., pp.182-184.

• 123. arrested for this crime and Mr. Wilson (Holmfirth) asked on

17th February if Saddler had been fed before his court appearance.

Other questions on this case followed until 9th March, 1891.

It is difficult to assess accurately the influence the

\Vhi techapel murders had on the Metropolitan POlice, as they followed a period of violent public unrest and the change to a more military style of organisation under Warren. These factors contributed to the unpreparedness at Scotland Yard not only for what was to come in Whitechapel, but also for the penetrating and concentrated publicity which accompanied the crimes. The White- chapel murders became the focal point for the double conflict, between Warren and Matthews, and to a lesser extent Warren and

Monro.

Any special procedures by the Metropolitan Police were temporary and the full extent of these cannot be judged as the papers relating to this period from Scotland Yard are now in the Public Record Office, and, subject to the hundred-year rule, will not be available for scrutiny until 1992. The City of London police is not subject to this ruling, but only one murder was committed within its area, that of Catherine Eddowes in Mitre

Square. Major Smith (the ASSistant Commissioner) had several photographs taken of her body at the scene of the crime and at the

mortuary. He also gave orders tha t plain clothes men H were to fOllOW, at a discreet distance, every woman who passed alone through the City at night and protect her from attack". (1)

1. From a letter by Chief Superintendent W. Burley, City of London Police, dated 9th January, 1973.

124. Sir Charles Warren did have Mary Kelly's eyes photographed, on the

popular superstition of the time that the last object viewed before

death was retained on the retinaa The test was negative. 0)

The murders underlined the lack of communication and possibly

co-operation between police officers. There was no uniformity in

COIllJllent or opinion, and individual work results were not shared,

that is if later books are to be believed. Opinions over the

murderer's possible identity were at variance and there is confusion

among some as to which murder was the last. (2) At least one

constable (Leeson) wrote that a murder committed in 1891 was a

'Jack the Ripper' killing, whereas most policemen in the case

accepted the medical view that the outrages ended in November, 1888.

Abberline, who was in charge of the investigation, did not share

the confidences of Sir Charles Warren. (3) It is interesting to note

that books written by men who were constables at the time of the

crimes (e.g. Leeson, Wensley and Dew) deal mainly with the physical

aspect of crime prevention and control, and the difficulty of apply-

ing routine police procedure to the case. Memoirs by higher

officials, like Macnaghten, tend to be more contradictory and

speculative, and deal in a more general fashion with the crimes

andconcentra te on the more interesting problems of identity and

motive. (Sometimes evidence appeared to have been suppressed or

concealed, as is evident from the diversity of opinion on whom the

1. William Stewart, Jack the Ripper, A New Theory (Quality Press), 1939, p.149. See also British Journal of Photography, 16th November, 1888, p.723.

2. See T. Cullen, op. cit., pp.200-201; D. McCormick, op. cit., pp.129-I32; D. Rumbelow, op. eit., pp.8I-8S.

3. D. Rumbelow, op. eit., p.84.

125. police regarded with suspicion. Although the investigations were

discontinued early in 1889, when C.l.D. officials intimated the

killer had committed suicide, some constables on the beat in the

East End seemed unaware of this as late as 1891.)(1)

During the murder period, the lack of co-ordination was

concentrated upon by the Press, which showed immense interest in

the case, especially when the police fell short on any matter.

Incidents to their discredit, such as the 'Bloodhounds' episode or the fact that different groups (including police) often shadowed one another on patrol, were exploited to the full.(2)

It was Warren's misfortune to be in charge at a period when

the Metropolitan Police was very much in the public eye. Apart from his military administration being considered a failure, he had little time to attempt the re-organisation considered necessary at the time of his appointment. During his short tenure of the post from 1886-1888, he was the subject of cartoons in Punch and (3) Fun, and was also lampooned in Judy and Moonshine.

Until the murders began, Division H, the Whitechapel Division of the MetropOlitan area, had been wholly concerned with the concentration of crime contained within the 'rookeries' of its own district. Suddenly, this deprived area and its activities became

1. When constables Loeson and Thompson found the body of Frances Cole on 13th February, 1891, they thought it was "another Ripper job".

2. Sir Charles Warren defended the police in the Daily News and Pall Mall Gazette, 4th October, 1888.

3. Punch, 22nd September; ~, 3rd October and 21st November.

126. the focus of news throughout the country, and as crime became more important than public disorder, both Queen Victoria and the

Prime Minister became involved in the problem that nobody could solve.

127. CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

This study of Whitechapel i.n the last two decades of the

nineteenth century has drawn attention to the nature of the physical

environment, the economic life of the area, its social structure and

social institutions. It gives to us a view of the condition of

poverty. Although many of the basic findings confirm those of

Stedman Jones and of Professor Wohl, this work isolates the data

and assists in giving a view of a part of London which was seen,

and indeed saw itself, as an entity. It was not only in official

local government bodies that this identity was evident, but in

various private organisations as well.

Before commentIng on the general findings, it is essential to

emphasise two other pOints that this study has been concerned to

make. First, Whitechapel served as a symbol of social malaise and

environmental decay. It attracted not only social investigators

such as Charles Booth and journalists supporting some of the features

of social reform, like IV.T. Stead; but it stood so close to Fleet

Street and to the centre of political affairs that it was a geographically convenient example of the extremes of poverty to be found in many densely populated urban areas of Great Britain. The citation of Whitechapel to Royal Commissions on Housing and to other enquiries led to attempts to ameliorate conditions. As a result, we found in the area active missionary efforts and social reforming activities, the most notable being associated with William Booth and Toynbee Hall.

128. Secondly, the publicity to change widespread social attitudes

and so to bring into being political decisions to tackle the many

aspects of poverty, owed much to the studies and references to

Whi techape 1. However, the sensational nature of the Whitechapel

murders was particularly significant to the Press. They not only

increased the circulations of newly emerging popular papers, but

drew attention to the social degradation of the area and to the

official responses, notably those in keeping law and order.

Although London itself was regarded as a magnet for all the 0) most worthless elements in human nature, the East End was the

most feared area in all London. Gareth Stedman Jones describes

i t5 image in the public mind as "a nursery of destitute poverty

and thriftless, demoralised pauperism, in a community cast adrift

from the salutary presence and leadership of men of wealth and

culture, and as a political threat to the riches and civilisation (2) of London and the Empire".

The East End was in many ways a city within a city, and those

who regarded it at all tended, at first, to think of it more in

physical than human terms. Indeed, until the publication of "The

Bitter Cry" in 1883, the public had seemed to consider any matter

concerned with health mainly in terms of sewers, drains, cesspools 3 cemetaries. ( ) From then onwards, and particularly after the

1. For a bibliography of writings on nineteenth century working­ class living conditions in London see A.S. Wohl (1968-9), op. cit., p.19l.

2. G. Stedman Jones, op. cit., pp.15-l6.

3. A.S. Wohl (1968-9), op. cit., p.192.

129. murders of 1888, there was a shift in emphasis to the human condition, so that economic, social and environmental factors were treated with greater importance. The support for Octavia

Hill's view, that the sanitary and housing problems of the poor stemmed in general from deficiency of charaeter, began to weaken slightly.

Professor Wohl is of the opinion that Booth's exhaustive study was inspired directly by the desire to test the astounding facts in

"The Bitter Cry", (1) and W.T. Stead and George Sims, among many others, thought the agitation provoked by the pamphlet led to the appOintment of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working

Classes in 1884.

It has been considered that the publications of 1883(2) were

important not so much in content, but for the time at which they

were printed; which explained their great appeal. In the same

manner, 1888 seemed particularly appropriate for the murders in

Whitechapel. In 1883, it was claimed that "a new consciousness

of sin" was stirring among those of intellect and notably among

some men of property. The publicity in 1888 made an impact, in

some degree, on all levels of class, for it exposed problems that

could be seen no longer in abstract terms. The isolation and

lack of community life was revealed, together with the boredom and

1. ~., p.228.

2. This year saw also the newspaper reports of George Sims, and other articles on housing conditions appeared in National Review, Fortnightly Review and Nineteenth Century. See also H.J. Dyos, The Slums of Victorian London, op. cit., pp.18-l9.

130. · (1) monotony of eX1stenC8. Political and social forms cannot

always be separated from human and moral qualities.

Concern had already been expressed, for what Charles Booth

called "the submerged nine-tenths", in such vOluntary work as the

Temperance Movement, the Salvation Army and by the establishment of

Toynbee Ha 11 (1884). By 1888, when the Whitechapel murders came,

the old Victorian way of life with its extremes of refinement and

harshness, was already under a steady attack. Despite this,

others were still bitterly against change. During 1888, a

parliamentary committee was enquiring into the accusation that the

authorities in London were financing, from the rates, moves to (2) oppose reforms.

The situation called for something highly unusual to happen;

a need for a sudden and violent shock to rivet attention and pull

closer together all the strands of existing reform interests and

unite them in purpose. (3) Something was needed to gather the

attention of the huge numbers of those who had been hitherto

uninterested in, or apathetic (even hostile) to social problems.

The 'Ripper' murders supplied this surge of interest, even though

some of it could have been considered unhealthy, as the murders

tended to focus the public mind more on the depravity and violence

of the East End than the misery and meanness of its life-styles.

1. A. Fried and R. Elman (eds), Charles Booth's London (Pelican Classics), 1971, pp.16-18. 2. R. Pearsall, op. cit., p.31l. 3. Dr. John Loane, the Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel, wrote in his Annual Report for 1888, that he felt philanthropists wore often too individualistic. He suggested that they combined their efforts and avoided excessive devotion to their own pet schemes.

131. So far as the Victoria masses are concerned, this is not so

important, for they appeared to have a sustained interest for murders

and violence, considered by some to result in part from their desire

to temporarily escape from monotonous, rigid and often emotionally

barren 1i ves. But P.J. Keating(l) comments that "the gruesome

acti vi ties of Jack the Ripper" came at a time when social reformers

were building up a less sensational picture of East End life, and

the murders thrust a more vicious image before the public mind.

However, it is not in any way unusual for the public to be attracted

to the more sordid and less important aspects concerned with sudden

or mysterious deaths.

Nevertheless, the mounting social concern about Whitechapel,

over the years, had made the locality a fitting One for the murders

when they came; a situation which led easily to the dramatic

coverage on aspects of the Whi techapel environment, and particularly

any which fascinated the public. Nevertheless, the sensational

reporting of some journals and the increased circulation had a

marked influence for the general softening of attitudes to the

problems of destitution.

After the murder of Annie Chapman on 8th September, the Daily

Telegraph commented" .••. she has effected more by her death than many long speeches in Parliament and countless columns of letters

to the newspapers could have brought about. She has forced

innumerable people who never gave a serious thought before to the

1. P.J. Keating, The Working Classes in Victorian Fiction (Rout1edge and Kegan Paul), 1971, p.116.

132. subject to realise how it is and where it is that our vast floating population, the waifs and strays of our thoroughfares, live and sleep at night and what sort of accommodation our rich and enlightened capital provides for them, after so many Acts of Parliament passed to improve the dwellings of the poor, and so many millions spent by our

Board of Works, our vestries ......

The Press as a whole became more sympathetic to the "Dark Annies" in Whitechapel, a fact noted by Bernard Shaw in a letter to The Star on 24th September. After referring, amongst other things, to the unemployment riots of 1886, when the windows of the Carlton in Pall

Mall were smashed, and the Mansion House Fund for the Relief of

Distress was immediately raised from three to £78,000, he added,

HIt remains to be seen how much these murders may prove worth to the

East End in pane m et circenses". Shaw also commented that the murderer had "been so successful in calling a ttention for a moment to the social question".

The saturation coverage of the murders from September to

December reinforced the opinions expressed previously in The Lancet,

Commonweal and other magazines and periodicals. The Lancet used the murders to push reform in all matters of sanitation;(l) linking the details from inquests with observations and investigations of previous years. The lack of mortuary facilities came under very heavy attack.

1. Particularly the edition of 6th October, 1888, p.683.

133. Shaw also wrote to The Star in September, 1888, "Such is the stark-naked reality of these abominable bastard Utopias of genteel charity, in which the poor are first robbed, and then pauperised by way of compensation, in order that the rich man may combine the luxury of the protected thief with the unctuous se1f- sa tisfaction of the pious philanthropist".

The impact of all the publicity was immediate and considerable; revela tions concerning living conditions in Whi techapel greatly affected some individuals and groups, previously on the borders of interest. Many more, hitherto in complete ignorance of the situation, added their numbers to the protests. However, many dedicated workers for reform, whether religious, medical, social or chari table, seemed less exci tad, as they were already well aware that Whitechapel was a massive problem area, an established and potent symbol of poverty and distress,

Labour and Life of the People was published which dealt with the

East End.

An important pOint of the publicity was that it influenced the hitherto hard attitudes on the non-involvement of the state in financing plans for housing reform. Measures like the Artizans

Dwelling Act of 1875 did not infer in any way that the government

1. Jack London's descriptions in The people of the Abyss, op. cit., of unpleasant conditions in the East End were based on his experiences about 1902, after a vast number of improvements had taken place. This indicates how the area had been in 1888.

134. should provide material assistance. The shock publicity treatment provided by the murders forced a re-thinking and re-assessment of contemporary methods of dealing with over-crowding in the slums.

Part of the greater awareness of Whitechapel life and slum life in general was contributed by the murders.

Although the weight of much of the informed opinion was directed towards challenging some of the Victorian standards and conditions, it was accompanied in many cases by feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction in terms of actual achievement.

The Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes (1885) had found no new ways to alleviate the housing situation, but did indicate legislation that had not been used to the fullest advantage.

This weakness of enforcement emphasised the need for reforming administrative practices to improve local government ~oherence.

At this time, there was a general feeling of despair that despite legislation and the efforts of medical, social and voluntary workers, the fight against the housing problem would be unavailing, unless housing became a government responsibility.

During the eighties, the call for state intervention to help cure poverty came from Conservatives and Liberals as well as

Socialists. It was the beginning of the rearguard action the

C.O.S. had now to fight. During this decade, Nineteenth Century had many articles on social questions, in particular one by Canon

Barnett entitled "Practicable Socialism".

135. When Canon Barnett shifted away from the C.O.S. principles of independence from State relief, many people were in sympathy with him and felt along similar lines, but Mrs. Barnett in her biography of him said that it was with great reluctance that her husband came to regard municipal housing as necessary. (1) In the beginning, he had been very much under the influence of Octavia Hill's point of view. When the murders came,(2) the condition of East London was made a matter of concern for many, and particularly the Government.

It is an essential point that public opinion was strong against the authorities from the beginning of the murder period and the movement for some kind of government intervention was intense, not only to obtain an arrest but also to effect an improvement in the

Whitechapel conditions. As early as September, the resignations of

Home Secretary Matthews and Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren were called for at a meeting in Victoria Park, when feeling against (3) the Government and the police leadership was high. All classes seemed to be united in condemning the situation. (Despite the heavy criticism, many of the people in Whitechapel felt that the position was becoming sufficiently desperate for them to assist the local police. Voluntary patrols were organised and rewards were considered as a further means to aid detection. After the

Mary Kelly murder on Friday, 9th November, the Whitechapel Vigilance

Committee held a special meeting on the Tuesday fOllowing at Paul's

1. Mrs. H.O. Barnett, op. cit., p.702.

2. Barnett himself had commented, "The murders were, it may almost be said, bound to come". The Times, 19th September, 1888.

3. D. McCormick, 0p. cit., pp.G7-68.

136. I! .. ~ Head Tavern in order to discuss ways in which they could help the ( 1) police. )

The criticism of the Home Secretary and the Metropolitan police was harsh and uniform, coming in different forms from many classes of society. Often it was overlooked at the time, in the emotional atmosphere, that the murders were in addition to, and not in place of, normal police work and routine. This applied particuarly to the police of Whitechapel (Divison H), who were already overworked before the 'Ripper' crimes. The Metropolitan Police as a whole found the sudden switch in emphasis from riot-control to murder detection a difficult adjustment. Fortunately for them, the detection problem soon became a part of the greater social problem.

A loss of respect between police and public had followed the

'Bloody Sunday' incidents in November, 1887, and this feeling was worsened by the police handling of the 'Ripper' murders' investigations.

The murders seemed to act as a catalyst in bringing to a head, or exposing, other differences: the lack of communication between police officers; the inability of Warren and Monro to work together; the clashes between Warren and Matthews; the rivalry of

City Police and Metropolitan Police; and they also revealed the sharp differences at Scotland Yard between the C.I.D. and other departments. It is reasonable to think that the Police reforms of

1894 may have been accelerated or influencod by the criticisms of

18B8.

1. D. Rumbelow, op. cit., p.107.

137. There is always a risk that sudden and powerful emotional

support for social reforms will fall away either through familiarity

with the Situation, or because the reaSOn for the shock is removed.

The public is then left with an individual series of impressions

often before any realistic and accurate understanding of the problems

have been achieved. The usefulness of emotional atmospheres of the

type released during the Whitechapel murders, in any practical terms,

is difficult to assess.

Sixty years before the \vhi techapel crimes, there had been a

sense of shock throughout the country over the ruthless series of

murders perpetrated by Burke and Hare upon the destitute poor in

Edinburgh. They systematically murdered derelicts from the slums

and sold the bodies to a professor of anatomy for use in the dissecting room. More important in effect than the killings, was

that the public had the realities of slum life revealed to it, both

during the investigation and the trial.(l) The effect on the public

showed that a social conscience can often be aroused over long-

existing conditions, by the dramatic impact of a series of murders.

Similarly, religious and social workers in the East End received

publicity for their efforts from such dramatic events as the Bryant

and May match-girls' stike in 1888 (led by Annie Besant) and later

by the London Dock Strike in 1889. Both were surpassed in

influence by the murders in White chapel , which seemed to obsess the newspapers of the country for several months. Within a few weeks,

1. See R.D. Altick, Victorian Studies in Scarlet (Dent), 1970, pp.33-36.

138. the Press of the world was directing its attention to East London and, in consequence, to the conditions prevailing there. "By crystallising complex issues into over-simplified yet still valid images the popular novelist becomes an invaluable middleman, skirting the rational debate, of which he is an off-shoot, and appealing, often in the name, directly to the emotions.,,(l)

Similarly, events, particularly those of a spectacular nature, have such an immediate impact on the public that they often achieve in a quicker and more concentrated manner what the successful social . (2) reform novel accompllshes. The labels put on such events ensure that the situations may be recalled years later by the memory, from folk-lore and in contemporary accounts.

The label 'Jack the Ripper' has had few equals as a myth-maker.

It has never been forgotten in Whitechapel, and from the time that the crimes were committed to the present, both the murders and the murderer have fascinated many people of diverse nationalities.

Apart from factual writings, there have been novels, films, operas and plays based on the incidents.(3)

During the 1920s,' Jack the Ripper' themes were used in the two German films, Waxworks (1924) and Pandora's Box (1928); at this

1. P.J. Keating, op. cit., p.586.

2. Bernard Shaw's letters to The Star had much the same line of argument.

3. The most well-known novel is The Lodger by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes (1913), which has been the basis of many films and stage adaptations. Alfred Hitchcock directed a silent film version in 1926 starring Ivor Novello. PhylliS Tate produced an opera of the same name in 1960. The number of novels, films, plays, short stories, musicals and television pro­ grammes based on 'Jack tho Ripper' themes, either contemporary or up­ dated, is in the region of one hundred, and increasing annually.

139. time, expressionistic art was fashionable and the anarchistic nature of the murders seemed to fit the mood of that period. Expressionism uses heavy symbolism, and in the cinema moves towards huge studio sets and elaborate technical effects rather than natural locations.

It involved exaggerations and distortions, together with a sense of blurring, and often a heavy and undefined emotion, giving an impression of nightmare. Most of these ingredients recall in some measure the atmosphere of Whitechapel in the autumn of 1888.

All the crime writers who have written about the murders have commented, in varying depth, on the living: conditions of those murdered, and of the area in general. The range of publicity in

1888 and the impact of the crimes on the public mind(l) has been revived for readers to Some extent in every work published on the subject up to 1975. In one sense, this has been a regular reminder of the problems of deprivation and conditions of poverty existing in one of the worst sectors of 'Outcast London' at a time of crucial issues of reform.

All the murders were committed at weekends and so a theory was put forward that this was in order to attain the utmost publicity at a time when Whitechapel was particularly crowded and active. This was considered together with the fact that the victims' bodies were outraged and left in the open with no attempt to conceal them.

1. Beatrice Webb in My Apprenticeship omitted any reference to the Whitechapel murders, although her writing contains much on the Whitechapel of that period. This is an exception, for most other writers, even those covering other topics, for example, Mrs. Barnett and J.A.R. Pimlot~ mention the impact and influence of the crimes at some length.

140. Seemingly, either the murderer was mentally unbalanced or he had some

purpose. Each murder surpassed the previous in daring or savagery

or both. This also supported the view that they were staged.

Several writers and others have suggested that the Whitechapel

murders were deliberately contrived as a means of social protest,

in order that the resultant publicity might accelerate reforms.

The most recent book presenting this view is Autumn of Terror by

Tom Cullen. However, even if the man Cullen identifies(l) was in fact the murderer, there is no evidence of anything but mental

instability, possibly insanity, but certainly no hard facts

concerning his attitude to any social or moral issues. Despite

CUllen's assumption that Druitt must have visited Toynbee Hall,

there is no evidence that he ever attended or worked there in any capacity, or visited any part of the East End. Neither had Druitt a known link with any of his fellow students at Oxford who eventually did settlement work. These two pOints seem to be the basis of

CUllen's argument that Druitt murdered as a social protest to change the face of the East End. In an attempt to explain this view, many thinkers along this line have made use of Canon Barnett's comment on dealing with the masses: "The mercy which can be angry as well as pitiful".

Col in Wilson in A Casebook of Murder(2) maintains that the unknown killer's sexually perverted fascination for the womb and his desire

1. Montague John Druitt. Suicide. Body recovered from Thames, 31st December, 1888. Aged 31. Barrister-at-law. Employed as an assistant at a Blackheath School. Mistakenly referred to by Sir Melville Macnaghten in his notes as being 41 and a doctor.

2. C. Wilson, A Casebook of Murder (Mayflower Edition), 1971, p.126.

141. always to destroy it shows suicidal tendencies. He further puts

the question that perhaps the killer's ultimate thrill was to destroy

Mary Kelly and discover a three month old foetus in her womb. His psychosis had something to do with a horror of birth - now he had destroyed a baby as well as the mother. If this analysis of Colin

Wilson's is at all near the. truth, it is at odds with the theory that the killings were motivated by social comment or protest.

Reinhardt(l) commenting on murder in general, suggests that sadistic sexual murders like those of the 'Ripper' are preceded by years of morbid and violent fantasies.

It is mora believable that the 'Ripper' was totally alienated from society and unlikely to be sufficiently upset about its failings or condition, to perform ritual murders as a means of instigating reform. If the murderer activated some social protest, it is more likely to have been completely unintentional.

The murders possessed a nightmarish element that seemed to be completely beyond the comprehension of the Victorians. They were aware of drunkenness and violence in their slums and were in general accustomed to poverty and bad housing, but until this time, nearly all crime among the poor could be classified roughly as 'economic'.

The apparently motiveless qUality(2) of the murders so shocked them that they were convinced that a foreigner must be responsible.

1. J.M. Reinhardt, Sex Perversions and Sex Crimes, Police Science Series (Charles C. Thomas), 1957, but also quoted by Colin Wilson, op. cit. p.123.

2. They seemed so to the general public. The view that the murders were staged as a social protest was not widespread.

142. This lack of understanding was reflected in related aspects

of the crimes.

Throughout the autumn of 1888, there was gross confusion over

the murders, the murderer, his likely identity, his motive and what (1) should be done. Similarly, when the poverty of IVhi techapel was

exposed, there were hazy views expressed on its probable causes.

Many ideas were put forward to be considered jOintly or severally:

some were, crime, immorality, drink, early marriage, extravagance,

low wages, death of breadWinner, sickness, aCCident, old age,

laziness, mental weakness. It is likely that the very diversity

of almost every facet of Whi techapel life was responsible in some

measure for the wide impact of the crimes.

The primary findings in this study, in terms of social conditions

in Whitechapel, are re-inforced and supported in works dealing with

the problems and difficulties in coping with high concentrations of

poverty in the late urban Victorian scene; urban degeneration; (2) (3) the changing of attitudes to the casual poor; social unrest,

overcrowding and re-examination of the condition of the poor. (4 )

By any standards, Whitechapel in the eighties was a bad area and the horror of some of its features are depressingly well-supported. It had all the characteristics of poverty but yet the population

1. As the murders did not result in a trial, the confusion could not be cleared by sworn testimony or the cross-examination of witnesses.

2. G. Stedman Jones, op. cit., pp.127-15l and pp.286-288.

3. ~ .• pp.296-306.

4. A.S. Wohl (1968-9), op. cit., pp.24l-245. See also The Victorian City, op. cit., Vol.2, pp.896-898.

143. continued to increase, chiefly as a result of Jewish settlement in lVhitechapel and contiguous districts. (1)

Everything in Whitechapel seemed to be on a large scale.

Not only were the problems enormous, but, according to Charles Booth, the volume of work concentrated on Whitechapel by religious and philanthropic effort was of cons iderable magnitude; The size and range of voluntary work needed to make an impression on the task was dalUlting.

It was not only in the volume of effort that Whitechapel was fortunate, but also in its, quality. In this study, the names of some important and influential persons have recurred, usually in connection with a settlement, misSion, religious body or philanthropic concern, sometimes independently. Whitechapel suffered not from neglect, as is often supposed, but from the size and pressures of its problems •.

The area was also served with devotion and efficiency by some lesser known workers. At the Royal Commission (1885), the White- chapel Union was said to be one of the best administered in the country, and Mr. ValIance, the Clerk to that Union, was considered to be one of the best Poor Law administrators in the land. (2)

Within the Union, he was equally well appreciated. In a letter to the Local Government Board, (3) the Chairman of the Whitechapel Union

1. G. Stedman Jones, op. cit., pp.324-326.

2. RCHWC, op. cit., Q.5182 and Q.5183.

3. 13th August, 1887.

144. referred to "the very exceptional services of Mr. ValIance, the

clerk" • Mr. ValIance also directed the very thorough investiga tion

into the death by burning of Betsy Wilk. (1)

Nevertheless, the 'Ripper' murders, for a time, attracted all

the interest and took the attention away from the East End of Charles

Booth, Canon Barnett and Mr. ValIance. Fortunately, as the crimes

could not be separated from the area in which they were committed,

the ghoulish fascination and horror of the case gave a specific

focus to the weight of concern and unease over the IVhitechapel

environmen t.

Some months after the last murder, the London Dock Strike took

place and another less sensational segment of East End life was

revealed, but its impact benefited from the momentum of interest

already buil t up by the Whi techapel crimes.

The influence of the 'Jack the Ripper' murders was not a

totally separate thing. Although the publicity attendant on the

crimes was intense, and the repercussions had a far-reaching impact

on the Whitechapel area in particular, and social awareness in

general, the series of murders should be considered only as an

important component of the complex reform atmosphere existing at

the time they were committed.

1. See Chapter 4, pp.76-77.

145. APPENDIX A

THE PERIOD OF THE MURDERS

There has always been a measure of disagreement among writers and commentators about the actual number of murders committed by . (1) 'Jack the R1Pper'. However, most medical and police opinion settles for five crimes perpetrated between 31st August, 1888, and

9th November, 1888, and some experts, in particular Professor

Francis camps,(2) include a sixth murder, that of Martha Turner (or

Tabram) on 7th August, 1888. If we accept five murders, then the period of the crimes covered ten weeks.

The murders occurred within an area about one mile square.

All the victims had their throats cut, and suffered various degrees of mutilation after death. The murders increased in savagery but ceased suddenly after the killing of Mary Kelly on 9th November.

They all took place at weekends between midnight and five in the morning.

At 5 a.m. on 7th August, John Reeves discovered the body of a woman on the stairs at 35, George Yard Buildings (later renamed

Gunthorpe Street). The victim was identified as Martha Turner and she had sustained thirty-nine stab wounds. Nine of these were in the

1. For example - lVilliam Stewart in Jack the Ripper, a New Theory (Quality Press), 1939, puts the number at four; whereas Michael Harrison in Clarence: the life of the Duke of Clarence and Avondale K.G. 1864-1892 (IV.H. Allen) , 1972, believes ten were killed.

2. Professor of Forensic ~~dicine in University of London, at the London Hospital Medical College, 1963-70.

146. throat, thirteen in the abdomen and seventeen in the area of the (1) breasts. Murder was so common in the East End that little notice was taken of the crime or the condition of the body.

However, the number of wounds and the sustained brutality of the murder, distinguished it from the usual cases of violent death.

Police Surgeon, Dr. Timothy Keleene, thought two weapons had been used and the assailant had some knowledge of surgery and may have been ambidextrous, or trying to give the impression of left-handedness.

The police felt that one of the weapons was a bayonet. On

10th August, Mr. George Collier, tho Coroner, opened the inquest at which a verdict of murder against some person or persons unknown was returned.

Mary Anne (Pally) Nichol1s, aged 42, was murdered on Friday,

31st August, in Bucks Row (later renamed Durward Street), the body being discovered at about 3.20 a.m. Bucks Row was a mean street which contained Barber's horse slaughterhouse. Slaughtering took place during the day and often well into the night. The area had the depressing sounds and smells of dead and dying animals. Opposite this, the body of Pally Nicho11s was found.

Her throat had been cut, several deep wounds had been made in (3) the abdomen but no organs had been removed. The murderer had been silent and speedy; people living nearby heard nothing. The

1. T. Cullen, op. cit., pp.33-36.

2. D. McCormick, op. cit., pp.16-18.

3. See The Times for 3rd, 4th, 18th and 24th September.

147. main difference between this murder and that of Martha Turner was in the degree of mutilation. Martha Turner's throat had not been cut and her body had not been deliberately mutilated. In the murder of Polly Nicholls, a long-bladed sharp weapon had been employed, conceivably of the type used by a mortuary worker, surgeon, butcher (1) (particularly a shochet), or a cobbler.

As with Martha Turner's murder, no one saw or heard the killer.

The two men who found the body, George Cross and John Paul, and the

three constables first on the scene, Raine, Mizen and Neil, all approached Bucks Row singly and from different directions. Cross reported to P.C. Mizen (R Division, Whitechapel), who was in Baker's

Row. P.C. Neil's beat was in Bucks Row and P.C. Raine had been

patrolling in Brady Street. All five had seen no one, and three nightwatchmen, three slaughterhouse workers employed nearby and a

Mrs. Emma Green lying awake in bed only yards from the murder spot heard no sounds, or cries. Dr. Llewellyn attended the bOdy.(2)

After this murder, it was implanted in the minds of East Enders

that a silent killer was at work, taking life without any apparent motive. There had been apathy about murder and violence connected with revenge, protection gangs, drunkenness, robbery and to conceal guilt or avoid arrest. Now public opinion changed slightly and information was given to the police by those previously hostile to the upholding of law and order. However, two murders had now been

1. Jewish Ritual Slaughterman.

2. The reports of Inspector Spratling and Chief Inspector Abberline are reprinted in full by S. Knight, Jack the Ripper - The Final Solution (Rarrap and Book Club AssoCiates), 1976, pp.49-53, who was granted permission to see police documents on the case.

14B. committed in the East End and the authorities had no useful evidence

as to the identity of the perpetrator.

Eight days later, the murderer killed again. Between five

and six o'cLock on the morning of Saturday, 8th September, the I

body of Annie (Dark Annie) Chapman was found in the backyard of (1) 29, Hanbury Street. She was aged 47. Her throat had been cut,

the head being almost severed, and the stomach mutilated. In this

case, a kidney and the ovaries had been removed. As in the Bucks

Row murder, no cry had been heard, despite the fact that sixteen

people slept at 29, Hanbury Street. It is unlikely that she

struggled much, as she was undernourished and weak from walking (2) the streets.

A victim pattern had now been established of middle-aged, drab

prostitutes with an addiction to drink. There was also consider-

able similarity in the autopsy findings between the murders of

Polly Nicholls and Annie Chapman. All the victims were "sisters

of the abyss" as the Victorians called them, wretchedly poor and

destitute and chronic alcoholics.

Dr. George Bagster Phillips, the Police Surgeon, complained

to Mr. Wynne Baxter (the Coroner) at the inquest that the body had

been taken to a shed in Old Montague Street for examination and

not to a proper mortuary. He also added that the removal of

1. A description of the Hanbury Street area is given in the Daily Telegraph, lOth September, 1888.

2. D. Rumbelow, op. cit., pp.58-66.

149. the ovaries indicated some anatomical knowledge and described

Annie Chapman' s body in his autopsy report as "Showing signs of . (1) great deprlvation".

The inquest on Annie Chapman was held at the Working Lads'

Institute and Mission in Whitechapel Road, next to the Whi techapel

Underground Station, and opposite the London Hospital. The

Coroner was again Wynne E. Baxter, and this, the longest of the inquests, was held piecemeal over fifteen days. The Police

Surgeon, George Bagster Phillips, objected to giving medical details of what happened to the body after death. The court was cleared of all women and boys but the testimony was reported in (2) full in The Lancet:

"The abdomen had been entirely laid open; the intestines, severed from their mesenteric attachments, had been lifted out of the body, and placed on the shoulder of the corpse; whilst from the pelvis the uterus and its appendages with the upper portion of the vagina and the posterior two-thirds of the bladder, had been entirely removed. No trace of these parts could be found .••. (3) the work was that of an expert .•.. to secure the pelvic organs

wi th one sweep of the knife .... rt

1. See The Times, 11th September.

2. Ibid., 13th, 14th, 20th-27th September (Inquest Reports).

3. However, Dr. Thomas Bond, who carried out the post-mortem on Mary Kelly and had studied the notes of the other four murders, wrote in his report that the murderer did not possess the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterman.

150. Inspector Chandler, who was called to the murder by the two men (Green and Kent) who had discovered the body, found at Annie

Chapman's feet a neat row of some pennies, two brass rings and two farthings. The placing was deliberate and systematic.

Three murders had been committed, but the police had no clue of any real value. Inspector Abberline Cll of Scotland Yard, who was in charge of the case, conferred with Inspector Chandler, and convinced himself that the murderer had avoided detection owing to his knOWledge of the East End district and its maze of dead-ends, interconnecting passages, alley-ways and court-yards. Many of the 'Ripper's' victims simplified his task by going into unlighted (2) alleys, dark archways and unfrequented courts.

The Metropolitan Police came under criticism at the inquest.

One of the witnesses (Henry Holland) gave evidence that when he tried to get a policeman to the scene of the killing, the officer had refused. Inspector Chandler defended the constable, who had been on duty at Spitalfields Market and under instructions not to leave his post. The Coroner, Mr. Wynne Baxter, said that "Murder

was murder" J and complained himself that he had not been given a plan of the locality.

On Saturday, 29th September, the Central News Agency received a letter referring to the crimes and Signed 'Jack the Ripper'. The envelope was clearly postmarked 'London East Central, September 28'.

1. Promoted Chief-Inspector during the investigation period of the murders.

2. W. Dew, op. cit p.99.

151. This was the first time the murderer had been given a name. Donald

McCormick(l) is of the opinion that but for the correspondence of

'Jack the Ripper', his name would not have endured, and his crimes

would have been forgotten. The police at first regarded the letter

as a joke, until the two murders (of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine

Eddowes) in the early hours of 30th September, were followed by a

second communication posted on 30th September, and received on (2) 1st October. After this, the general public was told in the

newspapers, and the name of 'Jack the Ripper' was forever

associated with the Whitechapel murders.

In the first letter, posted on Friday, 28th September, the

writer promised to cut off his next victim's ears and send them to

the police. The lobe of Elizabeth Stride's ear was torn and the

lobe of Catherine Eddowes' right ear was obliquely cut through.

These murders were committed during the early hours of Sunday,

30th September, and the second communication (a card) was posted

on 1st October, . in which the writer said, "I was not cadding

dear old Boss when I gave you the tip. You'll hear about Saucy

JaCk'S work tomorrow. Double event this time. Number One

squealed a bit. Couldn't finish straight off. Had not time to get ears for police. Thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again. ,,(3) The writer of the post card seemed to be aware of the contents of the letter, which had not been made public at that time.

1. D. McCormick, op. cit., p.77.

2. Full details of both letters are given in The Evening News, 1st and 2nd October, 1888.

3. See also the Daily Telegraph, 4th October, 1888.

152. ------

Nothing was published in the Press concerning the murders

until Monday, 1st October, and yet the writer knew that Elizabeth

Stride had made a stifled cry, (1) and an attempt had been made to

remove the ears. The authorities considered both communications

seriously and facsimiles of the two letters were reproduced for

the Press for public scrutiny on noticeboards. Scotland Yard

received a vast amount of material in both prose and verse purporting

to come from the killer. In one composition, he referred to himself

as "society's pillar". This cryptic and unusual phrase caused

considerable speculation.(2)

At one hour after midnight on Sunday, 30th September, Elizabeth

(Long Liz) Stride, aged 45, was killed in the yard of the Inter-

na tional Workers' Educational Club in Berners Street, close to

Commercial Road. This Club was a branch of the Socialist League

and consisted in the main of Russian, Polish and German Jews, most

of whom had left their own countries as a result of persecution.

The murderer was interrupted by Louis Deimschutz, a steward of

the Club, trying to enter the yard with a horse and cart. The

throat had been cut but no mutilations had been made, apart from

a small cut on the left ear. In the darkness, the horse refused

to enter the gate between the high walls of the yard. Deimschutz

got down to investigate and discovered the body, which was still

1. Evidence of Mrs. Mortimer, 36, Berners Street, four doors distance from where Elizabeth Stride's body was discovered. She heard a scuffle but thought it was in the International Workers' Club. D. McCormick, op. eit., p.72 and p.79. See also The Times, 2nd October, 1888.

2. Stephen Knight was granted permission also to examine the Scotland Yard Letters File on the murders and those kept at the Home Office, not normally available until 1992. S. Knight, op. cit., pp.48, 63,218-223. See also D. McCormick, op. cit., pp.77-92.

153. (1) warm. The cutting of the throat bore a similarity to the technique used in the previous cases, but the lack of mutilations was put down to the murderer being disturbed. In fact, some felt that the killer could have been hiding in the darkness close to

Deimschutz, having been alerted by the sound of the horse and cart on the cobbles. Liz Stride was, like the other victims, a prostitute and a very heavy drinker, and lived in a doss-house at

32, Flower and Dean Street. Her body was taken to the parish mortuary at St. George's in the East (Cable Street). (2)

Immediately after the killing of Elizabeth Stride, the murderer picked up Catherine Eddowes, aged 43, who had just been released from Bishopsgate Police Station on sobering up, after being held for drunkenness. Her body was found in Mitre Square, within the

City boundary, at 1.45 a.m. with the throat cut.(3) There were also severe cuts on the face, the left kidney and some of the entrails were missing, and she had been eviscerated. The wounds were similar to those inflicted on Annie Chapman. Catherine

Eddowes was a prostitute, emaciated by poverty and reliance on alchohol. She always gave her address as 6, Fashion Street, but it is likely she said this to satisfy the police when she was arrested for drunkenness.

Catherine Eddowes' body was examined in Mitre Square by the

City police Surgeon, F. Gordon Brown, and his assistant,

1. T. Cullen, op. cit., pp. 103-105.

2. The Times, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 24th October.

3. C. Wi1son, A Casebook of Murder (Mayflower), 1971, pp.124~125.

154. G. W. Sequeira. It was then removed to the City Mortuary (Golden

Lane) and photographed before and after the post-mortem examination. (1)

Detective Sergeant Ha1se, of the City Police, noticed at the mortuary that a piece of Catherine Eddowes' white coarse apron was missing.

Almost half had been removed by a clean cut. This was the piece later discovered in Gou1ston Street near to the chalk writing on the wall (in the Metropolitan Police area). The inquest on

Catherine Eddowes began on Thursday, 4th October, at Golden Lane mortuary, conducted by S.F. Langham, the City Coroner. (2) The

"double event" was more ferocious and reckless than the previous murders and this made the terror more intense.

The murder in Mitre Square surpassed the others in audacity, for the Square was patrolled at fifteen minute intervals by the police; a night watchman was on duty in Kear1ey and Tonge's tea warehouse, which occupied two sides of the Square; and a police constable's lodgings were OPPosite.(3l The place was also a very convenient short cut and people used it frequently from the Mitre

Street entrance and also two narrow passages - Church Passage connected to Duke Street, and Mitre passage connected to Creechurch (4) Lane. Despite these facts, the murderer was not seen and this added considerably to the hysteria, as many considered the killer to have supernatural powers.

1. These photographs were published by Lacassagne in France in 1899, but recent books by Daniel Farson, Dona1d Rumbe10w and Stephen Knight have included them.

2. The Times, Inquest Reports, 5th - 12th October inclusive.

3. ~., 12th October. Also leading article, p.7.

4. See The Evening News, 1st October, 1888.

155. The murder of Catherine Eddowes

'Nt

MITR.E SG,.UARE

(NOT -ro SCAl.f:)

(ft, PoSll"ION OF BObY. To embarrass the police further, it was discovered that a burglary had taken place at Aldgate Post Office, close to Mitre

Square, at about the time of the murder.

A few days later (16th October), Mr. George Lusk, Builder, of Mile End, received a parcel containing a portion of human kidney. Mr. Lusk was a member of the Vigilance Committee.

Together with the kidney was a note ("From Hell") addressed to

fl Mr. Lusk claiming the kidney had been taken from "one woman •

The kidney was examined by Dr. Openshaw, the Pathological Curator of the London Hospital Museum. He did not consider the matter to be a hoax and de'clared, "It is a portion of human kidney, from some- one who drank heavily ...• a woman aged about 45 ..•• removed from the body within the last two weeks". His comments and findings (1) were agreed with by Dr. Reed.

The body of Catherine Eddowes had been mutiliated by evisceration, and the intestines withdrawn and draped over the right shoulder, the face systematically disfigured. In addition, the left kidney had been excised. Medical opinion was in dispute over the degree of skill shown. There was also dispute as to whether the kidney sent to Mr. Lusk was that of Eddowes. As the renal artery is three inches long and two inches of renal artery were in the body of Catherine Eddowes and one inch of renal artery attached to the 'parcel kidney', it seemS reasonable to assume that

1. "An extraordinary parcel". See the Daily Telegraph, 19th October, 1888, which contained a detailed report on the incident.

156. the matter was not a hoax. There were many other pOints of

comparison as well.

Mr. Sutton, a senior surgeon at the London Hospital and an authority on the kidney and its disease, pledged his reputation that the kidney sent to ~~. Lusk had been put in spirits shortly after its removal from the body. Major Smith of the City Police carefully read the medical report(l) on the mutilations of

Catherine Eddowes and compared it with the report on the kidney sent to ~. Lusk. He was convinced that the kidney removed from

Catherine Eddowes and that sent to Mr. Lusk were one and the same.

The murderer removed a piece of Catherine Eddowes' apron.

It was fOWld blood-stained in the doorway of a house in Goulston (2) Street, about a quarter of a mile from Mitre Square. P.C. Long, who found the piece of apron at about 3 a.m., noticed that on a nearby wall was chalked, "The Juwes are not the men to be blamed for nothing". (3) The words were not on the wall at midnight.

Sir Charles Warren, despite strong opposition from other police officers present, removed the writing, as he feared it might provoke an anti-Semitic rising, in the heated emotions which

1. The kidney left in the body was in an advanced stage of Bright's disease.

2. The Daily Telegraph, 2nd October, 1888.

3. Dr. Thomas Dutton (1856-1935) of IVestbourne Villas, Bayswater, a close friend of Inspector Abberline, compiled over a period of sixty years three hand-written volumes 'Chronicles of Crime' (unpublished), including detailed examinations of the 'Ripper Correspondence'. Dr. Dutton claimed the writing on the wall and that in "some of the letters" was by the same hand. The police asked Dutton to photograph the wall writing, but Sir Charles Warren had the prints destroyed.

157. preva11ed.· (1)

After the "double event" of 30th September, there was a period of inactivity by the murderer. It is reported also that in

October and November of 1888 London and particularly the river area, suffered from thick grey fog. The enthusiasm of the

Vigilance Committee waned as there were no new murders, and it was most unpleasant to stay outside patrolling in the damp and increasing cold.

Six weeks went by and there were signs that life in East

London, particularly after darkness, was returning to normal.

Then. with his usual sense of drama and timing, the 'Ripper' chose to commit his next outrage during the early hours of the day of the Lord Mayor's Show, which was scheduled to pass through

Houndsditch.

The last murder, generally agreed that could be attributed to

'Jack the Ripper', was that of Mary Jeanette Kelly. She was much younger than the other victims, being aged 24, and was also the only victim to be murdered indoors. Mary Kelly lived in a single (2) drab room, off the notorious Dorset Street, at 13, Miller's

Court. Her body was discovered by John Bowyer, a rent collector from 27, Dorset Street, at about 10.45 on the morning of Friday,

9th November. She had been seen alive after midnight taking a

1. This explanation of Sir Charles Warren's action was not accepted by many contemporary observers, for a variety of reasons.

2. Afterwards renamed Duval Street, but now demolished. Adjacent to Spitalfields Market. Miller's Court was demolished in 1928. Full description of Miller's Court - the Daily Chronicle, lOth November, 1888.

158. (1) . well-dressed stranger to her room. The killer had slit her throat down to the spinal column, opened the abdomen and stomach, and cut off the ears and nose. Breasts, heart and kidneys were arranged symmetrically on a small table at the side of the bed.

Parts of the entrails were hung from the walls.(2)

This time, the body was taken to the mortuary at Shoreditch. (3) Before it was removed, it was examined by four doctors who took six and a half hours to establish that the murderer had not taken any parts away with him.

An editorial in The Star made the following pOints: "The murderer chose his time well .... with an insane love of notoriety determined to be the sensation of the hour ..•. If that was his intention he succeeded beyond all expectation. He got his sensation. While the well-stuffed calves of the City footmen were being paraded for the laughter of London, his victim was lying cold in a foul, dimly-lit court in Whitechapel".

The murder came at a bad time for Sir Charles Warren. His relations with the Home Secretary had been already worsened by a controversial article he had written for Murray's Magazine, without . . (4) permlsslon. As a result of ~~. Matthews' accusation that he

1. The witness, George Hutchinson, was not cross-examined at the inquest.

2. The Sunday Times, 11th November, 1888, and Illustrated Police ~, 10th November, 1888.

3. One of these was Dr. Bagster Phillips, the Divisional Surgeon. With him were Dr. Duke (Westminster), Dr. Duke (Spitalfields) and Dr. G. Brown. D. McCormick, op. cit., p.117.

4. See Chapter 6 on the Metropolitan POlice, pp.118-121.

159. defied a ruling under which he should have obtained permission

to comment in public on the management and discipline of the

Metropolitan Police, Warren resigned. The resignation was not

officially announced in the House of Commons until Monday,

12th November.

At earlier inquests, there had been some mordant criticism of

East End workhouse mortuaries, so when Mary Kelly's remains were

taken to Shoreditch mortuary, it was felt that this had been done

to obviate further adverse comment. It meant also that the inquest

would be conducted by Dr. Roderick McDonald, the Shoreditch Coroner,

and not Dr. Wynne Baxter, who had pres ided over the previous inques ts.

The inquest on Mary Kelly was held at Shoreditch Town Hall,

opening and terminating abruptly, on the first day, 12th November.

This gave rise to the suspicion that, as Mr. Baxter had upset the

police at the previous inquests, and had also aroused the anger of

the doctors by forcing them to give detailed accounts of mutilations

in public, the decision had been pre-arranged.

The suspicion seemed to be well-founded when the Coroner took only preliminary evidence, (1) heard only part of the doctors' evidence and did not make a detailed cross-examination of witnesses, one of whom (Hutchinson) had made a long observation of Mary Kelly and a stranger an hour or so before the murder took place. A verdict

1. See the leading article in the Daily Telegraph, 13th November, 1888, the day after the inquest. Also, The Times, 13th November, p.lO, and Pall Mall Gazette, 13th November, 1888.

160. of "Murder by a person or persons unknown" was recorded, and the police suggested that to reveal too much information at an open inquest might help the killer to conceal himself.

There followed a curious state of affairs. Rumours were strong

that the C.l.D. knew who the killer was, or what had happened to him. Yet, despite this, investigations proceeded for three to four months before the police suddenly began to reduce the number policing (1) the East End. Public unrest at this was stilled by hints from

the police that the murderer was no longer in circulation.

Scotland Yard never made an official statement so it was not clear whether he was dead or possibly under restraint. The story then

grew, without any denial from authority, that the killer had

committed suicide by drowning.

Mr. Albert Backert of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee saw

Metropolitan Police officials in March, 1889, to question why patrols had been reduced merely because there had been no murders

of the 'Ripper' type Since November, 1888. ~W. Backert was told

that if he were agreeable to be sworn to secrecy he would be given

information. He was told that the police were certain that 'Jack

the Ripper' was dead and he could feel it was quite safe to disband Vigilance Committee patrols. Mr. Backert protested at

this sparse information and received the reply that· the killer had

been found in the Thames at the end of 1888 and it would only cause pain to relatives to divulge any more.

1. Strangely enough. there were arrests in connection with the Whi te­ chapel murders for a year after the death of Mary Kelly.

161. His statement continued, "I again protested that I had been sworn to secrecy for nothing, that I was no wiser than before.

I said that if there were no more murders, I would respect the confidence, but if there were any more I should consider myself absolved from my pledge of secrecy. The police then got very tough. They told me a pledge was a solemn matter and that any- one who put out stories that the Ripper was still alive might be proceeded against for causing a public mischief. However, they agreed that if there were any other murders which the police were satisfied could be Ripper murders, that was another matter. I never believed the yarn, though I kept my pledge until after the

McKenzie murder in 1891. Maybe some police officers kidded themselves this was the truth though I have my doubts about that.

Chief Inspector Abberline told me years later that he was quite certain the story was untrue and that the Ripper remained alive ,,(1) an d uncaug h t.

Although the murder of Mary Kelly was considered officially to be the last of the 'Ripper' murders, the Metropolitan police did not close the file until 1891. The murders of Alice

MacKenzie on 17th July, 1889, and Frances Cole on 13th February,

1891, were eventually ruled by the police to be copy-murders, and considered to be unconnected with the series of Whitechapel killings during the autumn of 1888.

1. This statement is quoted in The Identity of Jaek the Ripper, oP. eit., p.156, and Donald McCormick claims he obtained it from the unpublished papers of Dr. Dutton.

162. James Monro, who succeeded Sir Charles Warren, referred to the Whitechape1 murders in March, 1889, (1) "I regret to say that in spite of the most strenuous efforts on the part of the Police the criminal has up till now remained undiscovered".

1. Report of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis for 1888, Section 19.

163. APPENDIX B

WHITECHAPEL UNION

These figures are based on those given in the paper to the

Royal Statistical Society of London by Charles Booth, June, 1887.

The first main form of classification was;

A. Lowest Class B. Casual Earnings C. Intermittent Earnings D. Small Regular Earnings E. Regular Standard Earnings F. Higher Class Labour G. Lower Middle-Class H. Upper Middle-Class

In the Whitechape1 Union, the figures for this classification were as follows: - (Condensed from Booth's Tables)

A. 2,487 3.38% B. 6,333 8.62% C. 7,525 10.20% D. 12,157 16.57% E. 32,501 44.21% F. 7,560 10.35% G. 4,087 5.49% H. 868 1.18%

Total population: 73,518 100%

164. The other main classification was according to the character of employment of the Heads of Families. Booth divided these into thirty-nine classes, which totalled 73,518 in the Whitechapel Union, being that figure also calculated in the A - H classification according to Means and Position of Heads of Families. The thirty- nine classes were as follows:--

WHITECHAPEL UNION

(Condensed from Booth's Tables)

Married Men

1. Lowest class - loafers 2,098 2.85% 2. Casual labour 3,029 4.12% 3. Irregular labour 1,462 1.99% 4. Regular work. Low pay 1,907 2.59% 5. Regular work. Ordinary pay 6,343 8.63% 6. Foremen. Reponsible work 611 .83% 7. Building Trades 1,326 1.80% 8 . Furniture and Wood 1,853 2.53% 9. Machinery and Metals 899 1.23% 10. Sundry Artisans 3,035 4.15% 11. Dress 13,406 18.23% 12. Food preparation 4,861 6.61% 13. Railway Service 498 .68% 14. Road Service 654 .90% 15. Shops, Refreshment Houses 1,132 1.54% 16. Police, Soldiers, Sub-Officals 1,106 1.51% 17. Seamen 130 .18% 18. Other wage earners 382 .52% 19. Home Industries. Not employing 1,227 1.66% 20. Small employers 3,918 5.31% 21. Large employers 449 .61% 22. Street sellers 2,856 3.87% 23. General dealers 2,984 4.05%

165. 24. Small shops 3,132 4.23% 25. Large shops employing assistants 1,791 2.45% 26. Coffee and Boarding-Houses 493 .67% 27. Licensed houses 742 1.02% 28. Clerks and Agents 1,346 1.84% 29. Subordinate professional 437 .59% 30. Professional 182 .25% 31. III and no occupation 442 .60% 32. Independent 47 .06%

Total Male Heads (12,550) of families

Females

33. Semi-Domestic 1,108 1.50% 34. Dress 474 .64% 35. Small Trades 484 .66% 36. Employing and Professional 80 .11% 37. Supported 326 .44% 38. Independent 69 .09%

Total Female Heads (819) of families

39. Other Adult Women 6,199 8.46%

73,518 100.00%

Total Heads of families (13,369)

Booth made the pOint that the main difficulty in classification by character of employment was in the first six sections which corresponded with sections A - F in the first table, as these melted into each other by insensible degrees and were more divisions of sentiment than of positive fact.

166. There were several other difficulties of classification.

Section 8 contained both highly-paid and ill-paid workers and

included shipwrights and coopers. Section 12 included slaughter-

men, journeymen, bakers, brewers' servants, sugar-refiners, fish

curers and cigar makers. All absent men who had homes in White-

chapel were put into Section 17. Farriers, drovers, gardeners,

gas and waterworks service were put into Section 18, after which

section we pass from wage-earners to profit-makers.

Home industries (not employing) included those buying materials

and selling products. Also slipper-making, toy-making, firewood

cutting, small bootmakers, tailors, watch and clock makers, lock­

smi ths, framemaker's and sweeps and printers who did not work for

wages. The section of Small Employers meant employing less than

ten and included 'sweaters'.

Booth made a distinction between dealers and street sellers.

Dealers were the small itinerant merchants and Street Sellers were a sort of shopkeeper, with their stock kept in stall, barrow or basket. General Dealers were mainly Jews. Large incomes could

be made by letting out barrows.

Small shops in Section 24 employed no assistants, and included some poverty among those who attempted to pay rent and make a living from the sale of articles of little value, to customers with little money. Most of the small shops not included in Section 24 were kept by wives of men in other employments.

167. Clerks were found in all classes from B - H, and casual dock clerks were paid at the rate of fivepence an hour.

Men who were ill or of no occupation were usually supported by wives or children. Female heads of families were poor.

Section 39 comprised unmarried women over 20 and widows without families.

Of the unemployed, Booth made the comment that there was little useful work for which they were fitted and in any case he was certain that most of them did not really want work.

168. BIBLIOGRAPHY

The assistance of the staffs of the following institutions is acknowledged for making available the material listed:

Bri tish Museum Goad's Insurance Plans for London, 1887. Contemporary Maps. Contemporary Journals.

London School of Economics Booth Collection.

Loughborough University Library Annual General Reports of Registrar­ General, 1880-1900 (microprint). Contemporary copies of The Times (microfilm edit.). Hansard Parliamentary Debates (microprint). Royal Commission On Housing of the Working Classes, 1884-5 (First Report and Minutes of Evidence). Select COmmittee On Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement, 1881. Select Committee on Poor Law Relief, 1888.

Nottingham University Medical Library The Lancet (contemporary editions).

Public Record Office (Ashridge) Poor Law Union Papers 7946-7952 (HM 12).

Public Record Office (Chancery Metropolitan Police Office Lane) Regulations (1863-1903). MEPO 4/8-11.

Tower Hamlets Local Collection Medical Officer of Health Annual (Bethnal Green) Reports (lVhitechapel). IVhitechapel Board of Works Minute Book. Whitechapel Union Board of Guardians Minutes.

169. Advice and information have been received from correspondence with the following:

Baptist Union City of London Police Congregational Library Guildhall Library Jewish Welfare Board New Scotland Yard Providence Row Convent of Mercy Salvation Army International Headquarters Skinner's Company

Journals

City Press Commonweal The Criminologist Daily Chronicle Daily News Daily Telegraph East London Advertiser East London Observer Evening News Fun Illustrated London News Illustrated Police News and Weekly Record The Lancet Moonshine Murray's Magazine News of the World Pall Mall Gazette The Penny Illustrated Paper Punch Reynolds News The Star The Times

170. Book List

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BARNETT, Mrs. H.O., Canon Barnett: His Life, Work and Friends (John Murray), 1921.

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BOOTH, William, In Darkest England and the Way Out (Knight), 1890.

BOSANQUET, Mrs. H., Social Work in London 1869-1912 (John Murray), 1914.

BUCKLE, G.E., The Letters of Queen Victoria 1886~1901, Third Series, Vol.l (John Murray), 1930.

CAMPS, F.E. and BARBER, R., The Investigation of Murder (Michae1 Joseph) , 1966.

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CHAPMAN, S.D. (ed.), The History of Working Class Housing (David and Charles), 1971.

CRITCHLEY, T.A., A History of Police in England and Wales (Constable), 1967.

CRITCHLEY, T.A., The Conquest of Violence (Constable), 1970.

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171. FRIED, A. and ELMAN, R. (eds), Charles Booth's London (Pelican Classics), 1971.

GAULDIE, E., Cruel Habitations (AlIen and Unwin), 1974.

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HALSTED, D.G., Doctor in the Nineties (Christopher Johnson) , 1959.

HARRISON, Brian, Drink and the Victorians (Faber), 1971.

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HILL, Miss 0., Homes of the London Poor, 1875.

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INGLIS, K.S., Churches and the Working Class in Victorian England (Routledge and Kegan Paul), 1963.

JEPHSON, Henry, The Sanitary Evolution of London (Fisher and Unwin), 1907.

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JONES, P. d'A., The Christian Socialist Revival 1877-1914 (Princeton, N.J.), 1968.

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Vo1.69, London 1875-1900, 1943.

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY, Vol. 50, Edward Stanford, 1887.

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KEATING, P.J., The Working Classes in Victorian Fiction (Rout ledge and Kegan paul), 1971.

KEATING, P.J., Fact and Fiction in the East End in The Victorian City (H.J. Dyos and M. Wolff, eds).

KELLY, A., Jack the Ripper (ASSOCiation of Assistant Librarians), 1973.

KENNEDY, L., 10, Ri11ington Place (Victor Go11ancz Ltd., 1961; Pan ther, 1971).

172. KNIGHT, S., Jack the Ripper - The Final Solution (Harrap and Book Club Associates), 1976.

LAMBERT, B., East London Pauperism, 1868.

LEESON, B., Lost London (Stanley Paul), 1934.

LIP~~, V.D., A Century of Social Service, The History of Jewish Board of Guardians (Rout ledge and Kegan Paul), 1959.

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MACNAGHTEN, Sir M., Days of My Years (Arnold), 1915.

McCORMICK, D., The Identity of Jack the Ripper (Jarrolds, 1959; Arrow Books, 1970).

MARCUS, S., The Other Victorians (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966; Corgi Books, 1969).

MAYHEW, H. (ed. QUENNELL), London Underworld (William Kimber), 1950.

MEARNS, A., The Bitter Cry of Outcast London (London Congregational Union), 1883.

METCALF, Priscilla, Victorian London (Cassell), 1972.

MITCHELL, R.J. and LEYS, M.D.R., A History of London Life (Longmans, 1958; Pelican, 1963).

MOWAT, C.L., The Charity Organisation SOCiety, 1869-1913 (Methuen), 1961.

MOYLAN, Sir John, Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police (Putnam), 1929.

NUNN, Thomas Hancock - The Life and Work of a Social Reformer, By His Friends (Ba~ and Scarsbrook), 1942.

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PEARSALL, R., The Worm in the Bud (Weidenfeld and Nicolson), 1969.

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PROTHERO, M., The History of the C. I.D. at Scotland Yard (Herbert Jenkins), 1931.

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173. REINHARDT, J.M., Sex Perversions and Sex Crimes, Police Science Series (Charles C. Thomas), 1957.

ROSEN, G., Disease, Debility and Death in The Victorian CitX (H.J. Dyos and M. Wo1ff, eds).

RUMBELOW, D., The Complete Jack the Ripper (W.H. AlIen), 1975.

RUSSELL, C. and LEWIS, H.S., The Jew in London (Fisher and Unwin), 1901.

SAUL, S.B., House Building in England, 1890-1914, Economic History Review, 1962.

SHAW, George Bernard, Collected Letters, Vol.l, 1874-1897 (ed. Dan H. Laurence) (Reinhardt), 1965.

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