Editing Whitechapel (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Whitechapel High Street 1905.JPG|thumb|Whitechapel High Street, and St Mary Matfelon, in 1905]]

====Early development====
Whitechapel, along with areas such as neighbouring [[Shoreditch]], [[Holborn]] (west of the city) and Southwark (south of the Thames), was one of London's earlier extra-mural suburbs. Beyond controls of the [[City of London Corporation]], Whitechapel was used for more polluting and land-intensive industries the city market demanded, such as tanneries, builders' goods yards, laundries, clothes dyers, [[slaughterhouse]]-related work, soaperies, and breweries. Whitechapel was strongly notable for foundries, foremost of which was the [[Whitechapel Bell Foundry]], which later cast [[Philadelphia]]'s [[Liberty Bell]], Westminster's [[Clock Tower, Palace of Westminster|Big Ben]], [[St Mary-le-Bow|Bow Bells]] and more recently the London [[Olympic Bell]] in 2012. Population shifts from rural areas to London from the 17th century to the mid-19th century resulted in great numbers of more or less destitute people taking up residence amidst the industries, businesses and services ancillary to the [[City of London]] that had attracted them.

====Whitechapel Mount====
{{main|Whitechapel Mount}}
The [[Whitechapel Mount]] was a large, probably artificial mound, of unknown origin, that stood on the south side of Whitechapel Road, about 1200 metres east of the [[Aldgate]], immediately west of the modern Royal London Hospital. The Mount is widely believed to have formed part of London's defences during the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]] in the mid-17th century. This was either as part of a ring of fortifications known as the [[Lines of Communication (London)|Lines of Communication]], which were in operation from 1642 to 1647,<ref>Civil War London, David Flintham, Helion and Company, 2017</ref> or additionally or alternatively, as one of the three forts replacing that system of defence immediately afterwards.

The mount was removed to allow residential development in 1807–1808.
[[File:The London Hospital, Whitechapel; seen from the northern sid Wellcome L0002107.jpg|thumb|The [[London Hospital]], Whitechapel in 1753. The [[Whitechapel Mount]] stands immediately to the right (west).]]

====Davenant Foundation School====
{{Main|Davenant Foundation School|Davenant Centre}}
In 1680, [[Ralph Davenant]] (rector of the parish of Whitechapel), his wife and his sister-in-law bequeathed a large sum for a schoolmaster to teach literacy, numeracy and the "principles of the Church of England" to forty boys of the parish. In the same deed Henry and Sarah Gullifer undertook to provide for the education of thirty poor girls; namely a schoolmistress was to teach them the "catechism, reading, knitting, plain sewing, and any other useful work".<ref name=davenant /> In 1701 an unknown donor gave the foundation £1,000 ({{Inflation|GBP|1000|1700|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) so the children might be suitably clothed as well as educated.<ref name=davenant /> Between 1783 and 1830 the school received twenty gifts totalling over £5,000.<ref name=davenant /> Typical income seems to have been about £500 per year, which was much more than most vicar's and rector's livings, net.<ref name=davenant /> Supporting modern education, the [[Davenant Centre]] continues and the [[Davenant Foundation School]] has, since 1966, been based at [[Loughton]] in [[Essex]].<ref name=davenant>''[[Victoria County History|A History of the County of Middlesex]]: Volume 1, Physique, Archaeology, Domesday, Ecclesiastical Organization, the Jews, Religious Houses, Education of Working Classes To 1870, Private Education From Sixteenth CenturySchools'': Davenant Foundation Grammar School, editors: J S Cockburn, H P F King and K G T McDonnell (London, 1969), pages 293–294. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp293-294 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231154400/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp293-294 |date=31 December 2022 }}</ref>

====Royal London Hospital====
The London Infirmary was established as a [[voluntary hospital]] in 1740, and within a year soon moved from [[Finsbury]] to Prescot Street, a very densely populated and deprived part of southern Whitechapel. Its aim was "The relief of all sick and diseased persons and, in particular, manufacturers, seamen in the merchant service and their wives and children".

The hospital moved to the then largely rural Whitechapel Road site in 1757, and was renamed the London Hospital. It became known as the [[Royal London Hospital]] on its 250th anniversary in 1990. The new building, adjacent to the old building it replaced, was opened in 2012.<ref>History section of the official website https://www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/the-royal-london-our-history {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428175711/https://www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/the-royal-london-our-history |date=28 April 2023 }}</ref>

In 2023 the old hospital building became the new [[Tower Hamlets Town Hall]], replacing the [[Mulberry Place]] site in [[Poplar, London|Poplar]].