Editing Whitechapel (section)

===18th and 19th centuries===
In common with many other parts of the [[East End of London]], Whitechapel gained a reputation for severe poverty, overcrowding, and the social problems that came with it.<ref>Whitechapel CP through time : Housing Statistics : Total Houses, A Vision of Britain through Time, GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10071306/cube/HOUSES {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231163420/https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10071306/cube/HOUSES |date=31 December 2022 }}</ref><ref>Whitechapel CP through time : Population Statistics : Total Population, A Vision of Britain through Time, GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10071306/cube/TOT_POP {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231163421/https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10071306/cube/TOT_POP |date=31 December 2022 }}</ref> 
[[File:Booth map of Whitechapel.jpg|thumb|right|Part of Charles Booth's map of Whitechapel, 1889. The red areas are "middle-class"; the black areas are "semi-criminal".]]
[[File:Booth poverty map colour key.jpg|thumb|400px|right|{{center|Colour key for Booth's [[poverty map]].}}]]

[[William Booth]] began his ''Christian Revival Society'', preaching the gospel in a tent, erected in the ''Friends Burial Ground'', Thomas Street, Whitechapel, in 1865. Others joined his ''Christian Mission'', and on 7 August 1878 the [[Salvation Army]] was formed at a meeting held at 272 Whitechapel Road.<ref>[http://www1.salvationarmy.org/heritage.nsf/titles/1878_Foundation_Deed_Of_The_Salvation_Army 1878 Foundation Deed Of The Salvation Army] accessed 15 February 2007 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525050352/http://www1.salvationarmy.org/heritage.nsf/titles/1878_Foundation_Deed_Of_The_Salvation_Army |date=25 May 2012 }}</ref> A statue commemorates both his mission and his work in helping the poor.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lonelyplanet.com/england/london/attractions/whitechapel-road/a/poi-sig/1278840/358914 |access-date=14 September 2021 |title=Whitechapel Road |website=Lonely Planet |archive-date=7 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407090407/https://www.lonelyplanet.com/england/london/attractions/whitechapel-road/a/poi-sig/1278840/358914 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Edward VII Whitechapel.jpg|left|thumb|Plaque commemorating King Edward VII, with the inscription "erected with subscriptions raised by Jewish inhabitants of East London 1911"]]
[[File:"The London" - geograph.org.uk - 36866.jpg|thumb|Royal London Hospital's old building from the 18th century]]

The population grew quickly with migrants from the English countryside and further afield. Many of these incomers were Irish or Jewish. Western Whitechapel, and neighbouring areas of Wapping, became known as ''Little Germany'' due to the large numbers of German people who came to the area; many of these people, and their descendants, worked in the sugar industry. The [[St George's German Lutheran Church]] on [[Alie Street]] is a legacy of that part of the community.<ref>East London Record - No 13 - 1990 https://www.mernick.org.uk/elhs/Record/ELHS%20RECORD%2013%20(1990).pdf</ref>

Writing of the period 1883–1884, [[Yiddish theatre]] actor [[Jacob Pavlovich Adler|Jacob Adler]] wrote, "The further we penetrated into this Whitechapel, the more our hearts sank. Was this London? Never in Russia, never later in the worst slums of New York, were we to see such poverty as in the London of the 1880s."<ref>Jacob Adler, ''A Life on the Stage: A Memoir'', translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, Knopf, New York, 1999, {{ISBN|0679413510}}. p. 232–233</ref>

This endemic poverty drove many women to prostitution. In October 1888 the [[Metropolitan Police]] estimated that there were 1,200 prostitutes "of very low class" resident in Whitechapel and about 62 brothels.<ref>Donald Rumbelow (2004) ''The Complete Jack the Ripper'': 12. Penguin</ref> Reference is specifically made to them in [[Charles Booth (philanthropist)|Charles Booth]]'s ''[[Life and Labour of the People in London]]'', especially to dwellings called [[Blackwall Buildings]] belonging to Blackwall Railway. Such prostitutes were numbered amongst the 11 [[Whitechapel murders]] (1888–91), some of which were committed by the legendary serial killer known as "[[Jack the Ripper]]". These attacks caused widespread terror in the district and throughout the country and drew the attention of social reformers to the squalor and vice of the area, even though these crimes remain unsolved today.<ref>Nicholas Connell (2005) ''Walter Dew: The Man Who Caught Crippen'': 7–55</ref>

[[London County Council]], founded 1889, helped deliver investment in new housing and [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|slum clearance]]; objectives which were a popular cause at the time.

The "Elephant Man" [[Joseph Merrick]] (1862–1890) became well known in Whitechapel – he was exhibited in a shop on the Whitechapel Road before being helped by [[Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet|Frederick Treves]] (1853–1923) at the [[Royal London Hospital]], opposite the actual shop. There is a museum in the hospital about his life.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/seven-places-in-london-connected-with-the-elephant-man-020117 |title=Seven places in London connected with the Elephant Man |website=Time Out London |date=February 2017 |language=en |access-date=16 April 2020 |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225222317/https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/seven-places-in-london-connected-with-the-elephant-man-020117 |url-status=live }}</ref>