East End Controlled Assessment

Controlled assessment part: A

How useful and reliable are these sources in explaining how difficult life was for the inhabitants of the East end?

In this essay, I am going to talk about the living conditions, working conditions and the crime during 1880s to the 19th century.
East end was a notorious are in the late Victorian times, it was a playground for criminals. Many have described the living conditions of the East end to the point of being almost unbearable. It was extremely over-crowded which made the cost of housing very expensive. It also had poor housing regulation which meant that it was easy to build cheap housing that was unsafe and with poor sanitation. In this essay will explore how far these living conditions affected
There was high unemployment due to the massive influx of refugees from Eastern Europe. The prostitution was rife and alcoholism fuelled by cheap gin was common. Despite these and many other problems Whitechapel and the East End in general were also home to a large number of honest, hard-working residents, many of whom worked to ease the conditions many poor families lived in crammed in single-room accommodations without sanitation. It also prompted people to spend as much of their time as possible away from home; although many joined social, religious, or philanthropic clubs, a larger number spent much of their spare time in the local public houses. Drunkenness led to disease, the loss of jobs, and, often, violence."Poor sanitation, another problem intimately linked with overcrowding, caused a high rate of child mortality. There were also over 200 common lodging houses which provided shelter for 8000 homeless and destitute people per night. Whitechapel, with a population of 76,000, had 39.2 percent of its citizens on or below the poverty line. Many workers could only find intermittent employment, and those who had regular employment often did not fare better. The sweating system, exemplified by overcrowded, unsanitary workshops, long hours, and low wages, was widely utilized. Many were forced to toil for fifteen to eighteen hours a day in the numerous tailoring, boot-making, and cabinet- making shops of the East
He chose his victims but were all mostly older, decrepit, drink-ridden prostitutes from the East End district of Whitechapel. The name "Jack the Ripper" appeared on a number of letters mailed to the police and to various news agencies. The publication of several of these letters, in the hope that someone would recognize the handwriting, vastly increased the killer's fame.

Source 4 tells us that the streets of Whitechapel were so bad that those living in the East End campaigned for improvement. The streets are were deserted after nightfall Turning down this side-street, but tuck out of view of jewellery. The street is oppressively dark though some shops are lit. Men are lounging in doorways smoking evil-smelling pipes, women are strolling about in twos and threes, or are seated gossiping on the steps leading into even darker passages. Round the corner is the notorious Wentworth Street, where it is said the police will only go on in pairs. It is late at night but gutters, doorways, passages and staircases seem to be teeming with children This is from an article that was written about Whitechapel in The Daily News, a newspaper that was campaigning for social improvement in November 1888. It’s a reliable source as it’s written at the time and by a huge