Whitechapel Overview and Housing
Ever wondered what it was like living in Victorian London's most notorious slum? Whitechapel, located east of London's city centre, was home to crushing poverty and sky-high crime rates during the 1880s. Unemployment was rampant, and working conditions were absolutely dreadful.
Most people couldn't afford proper homes, so around 25% of Whitechapel's population lived in lodging houses. These were basically glorified hostels where you paid nightly for a bed and kitchen access - but they were notoriously filthy and overcrowded. These lodging houses were crammed into rookeries (densely packed slum areas) with terrible sanitation.
There were some attempts at improvement though. George Peabody funded the Peabody Estate in 1881 - 11 blocks of flats with reasonable rents that replaced a former slum. It was a start, but nowhere near enough to solve the housing crisis.
For the truly desperate, workhouses offered bed and food in exchange for hard labour. Families were split up, inmates wore uniforms, and conditions were deliberately harsh to discourage people from staying. Most inmates were elderly, disabled, or unmarried mothers who had nowhere else to go.
Quick Fact: After 1880, Barnardo's homes provided much better care for orphaned children than the grim workhouses.
