Road · Whitechapel · E1 · Contributed by The Underground Map

JANUARY

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2000

Whitechapel

Whitechapel is a neighbourhood whose heart is Whitechapel Road itself, named for a small chapel of ease dedicated to St Mary.

By the late 1500s Whitechapel and the surrounding area had started becoming 'other half' of London. Located downwind of the genteel sections of west London which were to see the expansion of Westminster Abbey and construction of Buckingham Palace, it naturally attracted the more fragrant activities of the city, particularly tanneries, breweries, foundries (including the Whitechapel Bell Foundry which later cast Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and also Big Ben), slaughterhouses and, close by to the south, the gigantic Billingsgate fish market, famous in its day for the ornately foul language of the extremely Cockney fishwomen who worked there.

Population shifts from rural areas to London from the 1600s to the mid 1800s resulted in great numbers of more or less destitute people taking up residence amidst the industries and mercantile interests that had attracted them. By the 1840s Whitechapel, along with the enclaves of Wapping, Aldgate, Bethnal Green, Mile End, Limehouse and Stepney (collectively known today as the East End), had evolved, or devolved, into classic 'dickensian' London. Whitechapel Road itself was not particularly squalid through most of this period - it was the warren of small dark streets branching from it that contained the greatest suffering, filth and danger, especially Dorset St., Thrawl St., Berners St. (renamed Henriques St.), Wentworth St. and others.

In the Victorian era the base population of poor English country stock was swelled by immigrants from all over, particularly Irish and Jewish. 1888 saw the depredations of the Whitechapel Murderer, later known as 'Jack the Ripper'. In 1902, American author Jack London, looking to write a counterpart to Jacob Riis's seminal book How the Other Half Lives, donned ragged clothes and boarded in Whitechapel, detailing his experiences in The People of the Abyss. Riis had recently documented the astoundingly bad conditions in the leading city of the United States. Jack London, a socialist, thought it worthwhile to explore conditions in the leading city of the nation that had created modern capitalism. He concluded that English poverty was far rougher than the American variety. The juxtaposition of the poverty, homelessness, exploitive work conditions, prostitution, and infant mortality of Whitechapel and other East End locales with some of the greatest personal wealth the world has ever seen made it a focal point for leftist reformers of all kinds, from George Bernard Shaw, whose Fabian Society met regularly in Whitechapel, to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who boarded and led rallies in Whitechapel during his exile from Russia.

Whitechapel remained poor (and colourful) through the first half of the 20th Century, though somewhat less desperately so. It suffered great damage in the V2 German rocket attacks and the Blitz of World War II. Since then, Whitechapel has lost its notoriety, though it is still thoroughly working class. The Bangladeshis are the most visible migrant group there today and it is home to many aspiring artists and shoestring entrepreneurs.

Since the 1970s, Whitechapel and other nearby parts of East London have figured prominently in London's art scene. Probably the most prominent art venue is the Whitechapel Art Gallery, founded in 1901 and long an outpost of high culture in a poor neighbourhood. As the neighbourhood has gentrified, it has gained citywide, and even international, visibility and support.

Whitechapel, is a London Underground and London Overground station, on Whitechapel Road was opened in 1876 by the East London Railway on a line connecting Liverpool Street station in the City of London with destinations south of the River Thames. The station site was expanded in 1884, and again in 1902, to accommodate the services of the Metropolitan District Railway, a predecessor of the London Underground. The London Overground section of the station was closed between 2007 and 27 April 2010 for rebuilding, initially reopening for a preview service on 27 April 2010 with the full service starting on 23 May 2010.

LOCATIONS ON THE UNDERGROUND MAP

18 Folgate Street:   Dennis Severs' House in Folgate Street is a 'still-life drama' created by the previous owner as an 'historical imagination' of what life would have been like inside for a family of Huguenot silk weavers.
Altab Ali Park:   
Shoreditch:   Shoreditch is a place in the London Borough of Hackney. It is a built-up district located 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north east of Charing Cross.
Spitalfields:   Spitalfields is near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane.
Toynbee Hall:   Toynbee Hall is a building which is the home of a charity of the same name.
Whitechapel:   Whitechapel is a neighbourhood whose heart is Whitechapel Road itself, named for a small chapel of ease dedicated to St Mary.

PHOTOS OF THE AREA

Wentworth Street (1901):   Turn-of-the-century fashion in east London.

NEARBY STREETS AND BUILDINGS ON THE UNDERGROUND MAP

Adler Street, E1 · Alderman Stairs, E1W · Alderman Stairs, SE1 · Angel Alley, E1 · Arcadia Court, E1 · Artillery Lane, E1 · Artillery Passage, E1 · Arts Quarter, E1 · Back Church Lane, E1 · Back Mews, SE4 · Bacon Street, E1 · Bacon Street, E2 · Barnsley Street, E1 · Batty Street, E1 · Bell Lane, E1 · Bethnal Green Road, E1 · Bishops Square, E1 · Black Lion Yard, E1 · Blossom Street, E1 · Boundary Passage, E1 · Boundary Street, E2 · Boyd Street, E1 · Brady Street, E1 · Braithwaite Street, E1 · Brick Lane, E1 · Brune House, E1 · Brune Street, E1 · Brushfield Street, E1 · Buckhurst Street, E1 · Burr Close, E1W · Burslem Street, E1 · Buxton Street, E1 · Calvin Street, E1 · Cambridge Heath Road, E1 · Casson Street E.1, E1 · Casson Street, E1 · Castlemain Street, E1 · Celia Blairman House, E1 · Chance Street, E1 · Cheshire Street, E2 · Chicksand Street, E1 · Chilton Street, E2 · Christian Street, E1 · Club Row, E1 · Club Row, E2 · Cobb Street, E1 · Code Street, E1 · College East, E1 · Collingwood Street, E1 · Commercial St, E1 · Commercial Street, E1 · Coney Way, SW8 · Coppergate House, E1 · Corbet Place, E1 · Court Street, E1 · Coverley Close, E1 · Crispin Place, E1 · Crispin Street, E1 · Cudworth Street, E1 · Darling Row, E1 · Davenant Street, E1 · Deal Street, E1 · Dorset Street, E1 · Dray Walk, E1 · Durward Street, E1 · East Mount Street, E1 · Ebor Street, E1 · Elder Street, E1 · Fairclough Street, E1 · Fashion Street, E1 · Fieldgate Street, E1 · Fleur De Lis Street, E1 · Flower and Dean Street, E1 · Folgate Street, E1 · Forbes Street, E1 · Fordham Street, E1 · Fournier Street, E1 · Frying Pan Alley, E1 · Fulbourne Street, E1 · George Street, E1 · Gibraltar Walk, E2 · Golding Street, E1 · Goldman Close, E2 · Granary Road, E1 · Granby Street, E2 · Greatorex Street, E1 · Greenfield Road, E1 · Grimsby Street, E2 · Gun Street, E1 · Gunthorpe Street, E1 · Hanbury Street, E1 · Harrow Place, E1 · Headlam Street, E1 · Hemming Street, E1 · Heneage Street, E1 · Henriques Street, E1 · Hermitage Court, E1W · Hopetown Street, E1 · Hunton Street, E1 · Kerbela Street, E2 · Key Close, E1 · Kings Arms Court, E1 · Knighten Street, E1W · Knighton Street, E1W · Lamb Street, E1 · Langdale Street, E1 · Leyden Street, E1 · Ligonier Street, E2 · Little Paternoster Row, E1 · Lolesworth Close, E1 · London Fruit Exchange, E1 · Merceron Street, E1 · Mews Street, E1W · Middlesex Street, E1 · Monthope Road, E1 · Mulberry Street, E1 · Myrdle Street, E1 · Nesham Street, E1W · Old Montague Street, E1 · Old Nichol Street, E2 · Orton Street, E1W · Osborn Street, E1 · Osborne Street, E1 · Osbourne Street, E1 · Parfett Street, E1 · Pedley Street, E1 · Pereira Street, E1 · Philchurch Place, E1 · Pier Head, E1W · Pinchin Street, E1 · Plumbers Row, E1 · Ponler Street, E1 · Princelet Street, E1 · Puma Court, E1 · Quaker Street, E1 · Redchurch Street, E2 · Regal Close, E1 · Rhoda Street, E2 · Rochelle Street, E2 · Romford Street, E1 · Saint Katherine’s Way, E1W · Sampson Street, E1W · Sclater Street, E1 · Scott Street, E1 · Selby Street, E1 · Settles Street, E1 · Shacklewell Street, E2 · Shoreditch High Street, E1 · Shoreditch High Street, E8 · Shoreditch High Street, EC1V · Shoreditch High Street, EC2A · Silwex House, E1 · Spellman Street, E1 · Spelman House, E1 · Spelman Street, E1 · Spital Square, E1 · Spital Street, E1 · Spring Walk, E1 · St Anthony’s Close, E1W · St Katharines Way, E1W · St Katharine’s Way, E1W · St Matthews Row, E2 · Star Place, E1W · Stepney Green Court, E1 · Stockholm Way, E1W · Stothard Place, EC2M · Strype Street, E1 · Stutfield Street, E1 · Surma Close, E1 · Tea Building, E1 · Tent Street, E1 · Tenter Ground, E1 · Thomas More Square, E1W · Thomas More Street, E1W · Thrawl Street, E1 · Three Colts Corner, E2 · Three Colts Lane, E1 · Three Colts Lane, E2 · Tower Bridge Approach, E1W · Tower Bridge Approach, EC3N · Tower Bridge, E1W · Tower Walk, E1W · Toynbee Street, E1 · Trahorn Close, E1 · Turville Street, E2 · Umberston Street, E1 · Underwood Road, E1 · Vallance Road, E1 · Vaughan Way, E1W · Vine Court, E1 · Weaver Street, E1 · Wentworth Street, E1 · Wheler Street, E1 · Whitby Street, E1 · Whitechapel Market, E1 · Whitechapel Road, E1 · Whitechapel Street, E1 · Whites Row, E1 · Wicker Street, E1 · Wilkes Street, E1 · Winthrop Street, E1 · Wodeham Gardens, E1 · Woodseer Street, E1 ·