Whitechapel is a district in
East London and the future administrative centre of the
London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the
East End of London, east of
Charing Cross. Part of the
historic county of
Middlesex, the area formed a civil and ecclesiastical
parish after splitting from the
ancient parish of
Stepney in the 14th century. It became part of the
County of London in 1889 and
Greater London in 1965. Because the area is close to the
London Docklands and east of the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
, it has been a popular place for immigrants and the working class.
The area was the centre of the London Jewish community in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Whitechapel, along with the neighbouring district of Spitalfields, were the location of the infamous 11
Whitechapel murders
The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the largely impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. At various points some or all of these eleven unsolved murders of women have b ...
(1888–91), some of which were attributed to the mysterious
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
known as
Jack the Ripper. In the latter half of the 20th century, Whitechapel became a significant settlement for the
British Bangladeshi community and has the
Royal London Hospital and
East London Mosque.
History
Before the 19th century
Whitechapel's heart is
Whitechapel High Street, extending further east as
Whitechapel Road, named after a small
chapel of ease dedicated to
St Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
. The church's earliest known rector was Hugh de Fulbourne in 1329. Around 1338, it became the parish church of Whitechapel, called, for unknown reasons,
St Mary Matfelon. The church was severely damaged during the Blitz and demolished in 1952, and its location and graveyard is now a
public garden on the south side of the road.
[Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert (eds) (1983) "Whitechapel" in ''The London Encyclopaedia'': 955-6]
Whitechapel High Street and Whitechapel Road are now part of the
A11 road, anciently the initial part of the
Roman road between the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
and
Colchester, exiting the city at
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
. In later times, travellers to and from London on this route were accommodated at the many
coaching inns
The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point (layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of trav ...
which lined Whitechapel High Street.
By the late 16th century, the suburb of Whitechapel and the surrounding area had started becoming "the other half" of London. Located east of
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
, outside the
City Walls and beyond official controls, it attracted the less fragrant activities of the city, particularly tanneries, breweries, foundries (including the
Whitechapel Bell Foundry, which later cast
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
's
Liberty Bell and London's
Big Ben) and
slaughterhouses.
In 1680, the Rector of Whitechapel,
Ralph Davenant, of the parish of St Mary Matfelon, bequeathed a legacy for the education of forty boys and thirty girls of the parish; the
Davenant Centre is still in existence although the
Davenant Foundation School moved from Whitechapel to
Loughton in 1966.
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 and mercantile interests that had attracted them.
In 1797, the body of the sailor
Richard Parker, hanged for his leading role in the
Nore mutiny
The Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. They were the first in an increasing series of outbreaks of maritime radicalism in the Atlantic World. Despite their temporal proximity, the mutinies d ...
, was given a Christian burial at Whitechapel after his wife
exhume
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
d it from the unconsecrated burial ground to which it was originally consigned. Crowds gathered to see the body before it was buried.
19th century
By the 1840s, Whitechapel, together with districts such as
Wapping,
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
,
Bethnal Green,
Mile End,
Limehouse,
Bow,
Bromley-by-Bow,
Poplar,
Shadwell and
Stepney (collectively known today as "the
East End"), had evolved into classic ''"
Dickensian
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
"'' London, with problems of poverty and overcrowding. Whitechapel Road itself was not particularly squalid through most of this period; it was the warrens of small dark streets branching from it that contained the greatest suffering, filth and danger, such as
Dorset Street (once described as "the worst street in London"), Thrawl Street, Berners Street (renamed
Henriques Street
The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the largely impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. At various points some or all of these eleven unsolved murders of women have ...
), Wentworth Street, and others.
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. A statue commemorates both his mission and his work in helping the poor.
In the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...
the basal population of poor English country stock was swelled by immigrants from all over, particularly Irish and Jewish. Writing of the period 1883–1884,
Yiddish theatre actor
Jacob Adler
Jacob Pavlovich Adler (Yiddish: יעקבֿ פּאַװלאָװיטש אַדלער; born Yankev P. Adler; February 12, 1855 – April 1, 1926)IMDB biography was a Jewish actor and star of Yiddish theater, first in Odessa, and later in London and ...
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."
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. Reference is specifically made to them in
Charles Booth's ''
Life and Labour of the People in London'', specially to dwellings called
Blackwall Buildings
Blackwall Buildings were housing blocks built in 1890 in Thomas Street, Whitechapel. Its first tenants were rehoused from an area that had been cleared during railway construction work, and they paid a nominal rent. By the late 1960s the buildings ...
belonging to Blackwall Railway. Such prostitutes were numbered amongst the 11
Whitechapel murders
The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the largely impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. At various points some or all of these eleven unsolved murders of women have b ...
(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.
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
Frederick Treves (1853–1923) at the
Royal London Hospital, opposite the actual shop. There is a museum in the hospital about his life.
20th century
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
''The People of the Abyss'' (1903) is a book by Jack London, containing his first-hand account of several weeks spent living in the Whitechapel district of the East End of London in 1902. London attempted to understand the working-class of this ...
''. Riis had recently documented the astoundingly bad conditions in large swathes of the leading city of the United States.
The
Siege of Sidney Street in January 1911 was a gunfight between police and military forces, and Latvian revolutionaries. Then Home Secretary
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
took over the operation, and his presence caused a political row over the level of his involvement during the time. His biographers disagreed and claimed that he gave no operational commands to the police, but a Metropolitan Police account states that the events of Sidney Street were "a very rare case of a Home Secretary taking police operational command decisions".
The
Freedom Press, a socialist publishing house, thought it worthwhile to explore conditions in the leading city of the nation that had invented modern capitalism. He concluded that English poverty was far rougher than the American variety. The juxtaposition of the poverty, homelessness, exploitative 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 and revolutionaries of all kinds, from
George Bernard Shaw, whose
Fabian Society met regularly in Whitechapel, to
Vladimir Lenin, led rallies in Whitechapel during his exile from Russia. The area is still home to Freedom Press, the anarchist publishing house founded by
Charlotte Wilson
Charlotte Mary Wilson (6 May 1854, Kemerton, Worcestershire – 28 April 1944, Irvington-on-Hudson, New York) was an English Fabian and anarchist who co-founded ''Freedom'' newspaper in 1886 with Peter Kropotkin, and edited, published, and ...
.
On Sunday 4 October 1936, the
British Union of Fascists led by
Oswald Mosley, intended to march through the East End, an area with a large Jewish population. The BUF mustered on and around
Tower Hill and hundreds of thousands of local people turned out to block the march. There were violent clashes with the BUF around Tower Hill, but most of the violence occurred as police tried to clear a route through the crowds for the BUF to follow.
The police fought protesters at nearby
Cable Street – the series of clashes becoming known as the
Battle of Cable Street – and Tower Hill, but the largest confrontations took place at
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
and Whitechapel, notably at
Gardiner's Corner, at the junction of
Leman Street,
Commercial Street and
Whitechapel High Street.
Whitechapel remained poor through the first half of the 20th century, though somewhat less desperately so. It suffered great damage in
the Blitz, including the destruction of the parish church,
St Mary Matfelon on 29 December 1940, and from the subsequent
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
V-weapon attacks. Since the war, Whitechapel has lost most of its notoriety.
Altab Ali
Altab Ali ( bn, আলতাব আলী; 1953 – 4 May 1978) was a Bangladeshi textile worker stabbed to death in London, in a racially motivated killing. His death sparked widespread outrage and grassroots action that helped to reduce racism ...
was murdered by three teenagers on 4 May 1978 in a racist attack at St Mary's Gardens by St Mary's Churchyard as he walked home after work. The reaction to his murder provoked the mass mobilisation of the Bengali community locally and came to represent the self-organisation of the community. The gardens of the churchyard were later renamed
Altab Ali Park
Altab Ali Park is a small park on Adler Street, White Church Lane and Whitechapel Road, London E1. Formerly known as St Mary's Park, it is the site of the old 14th-century white church, St Mary Matfelon, from which the area of Whitechapel g ...
in his memory.
The
Metropolitan line between Hammersmith and Whitechapel was withdrawn in 1990 and shown separately as a new line called the
Hammersmith & City line.
21st century
Crossrail calls at Whitechapel station on the
Elizabeth line. Eastbound services will be split into two branches after leaving the historic station which underwent a massive redevelopment that started in 2010.
In order to prepare for Crossrail, in January 2016, the old Whitechapel station was closed for refurbishment and modernisation work in order to improve services and increase capacity in the station.
The Royal London Hospital was closed and re-opened behind the original site in 2012 in a brand new building costing £650m. The old site was then repurchased by the local council to open a new town hall, replacing the existing Town Hall at Mulberry Place.
In March 2022,
Whitechapel station
Whitechapel is an interchange station in Whitechapel, East London for London Underground, London Overground and Elizabeth line services. The station is located behind a street market of the same name and opposite the Whitechapel Civic Ce ...
signs had "হোয়াইটচ্যাপেল" in
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
installed everywhere.
The
British-Pakistani
British Pakistanis ( ur, (Bratānia men maqīm pākstānī); also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in t ...
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was "delighted" that the signage was installed ahead of
Bangladesh Independence Day on 26 March.
[ The installation was applauded by not only Bangladeshi diplomats, but also ]Mamata Banerjee
Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 20 May 2011, the first woman to hold the office. Having served many times as a ...
, the Chief Minister of West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
.
Also in 2022 a historical marker was placed in Whitechapel, on the site of the former Adler House at the junction of Adler and Coke Streets by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation U.K. Branch. Adler House was named in honour of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, Herman Adler, 1891–1911. The marker recognises the significance of Whitechapel as the centre of British Jewish refugee life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Governance
Local council facilities will be grouped within the old Royal London Hospital building as a civic centre. The local library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...
, now called an ''Idea Store'' is located on Whitechapel Road.
Culture
Whitechapel Road was the location of two 19th-century theatres: The Effingham (1834–1897) and The Pavilion Theatre (1828–1935; building demolished in 1962). Charles Dickens Jr. (eldest child of Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
), in his 1879 book '' Dickens's Dictionary of London'', described the Pavilion this way: "A large East-end theatre capable of holding considerably over 3,000 persons. Melodrama of a rough type, farce, pantomime, &c." In the early 20th century it became the home of Yiddish theatre, catering to the large Jewish population of the area, and gave birth to the Anglo-Jewish 'Whitechapel Boys' avant-garde literary and artistic movement.
Since at least the 1970s, Whitechapel and other nearby parts of East London have figured prominently in London's art scene. Probably the area's 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. From 2005 the gallery underwent a major expansion, with the support of £3.26 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The expanded facility opened in 2009.
Whitechapel in the early 21st century has figured prominently in London's punk rock and skuzz rock scenes, with the main focal point for this scene being Whitechapel Factory and Rhythm Factory bar, restaurant, and nightclub. This scene includes the likes of The Libertines, Zap!, Nova, The Others, Razorlight, and The Rakes, all of whom have had some commercial success in the music charts.
Demographics
Bangladeshis
Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay.
Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when th ...
are the most visible migrant group today, who make up 40% of the Whitechapel ward total population. The East London Mosque at the end of Whitechapel Road is a major symbol of the resident Islamic community. The mosque group was established as early as 1910, and the demand for a mosque grew as the Sylheti community grew rapidly over the years.
In 1985 this large, purpose built mosque with a dome and minaret was built in the heart of Whitechapel, attracting thousands of worshippers every week, and it was further expanded with the London Muslim Centre in 2004. The Altab Ali Park
Altab Ali Park is a small park on Adler Street, White Church Lane and Whitechapel Road, London E1. Formerly known as St Mary's Park, it is the site of the old 14th-century white church, St Mary Matfelon, from which the area of Whitechapel g ...
near Adler Street was formerly a church site but was destroyed during the Blitz. It was renamed to 'Altab Ali Park' in memory of a Bangladeshi clothing worker who was the victim of a racially motivated murder on 4 May 1978, and of other victims of racist attacks during the 1970s.
A library, the Whitechapel Idea Store, constructed in 2005 at a cost of £12 million by William Verry to a design by David Adjaye, was nominated for the 2006 Stirling Prize.
In literature
Whitechapel features in Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
's '' Pickwick Papers'' (chapter 22) as the location of the Bull Inn, where the Pickwickians take a coach to Ipswich. En route, driving along Whitechapel Road, Sam Weller opines that it is "not a wery nice neighbourhood" and notes the correlation between poverty and the abundance of oyster stalls here. One of Fagin's dens in Dickens's '' Oliver Twist'' was located in Whitechapel and Fagin, himself, was possibly based on a notorious local 'fence' named Ikey Solomon
Isaac "Ikey" Solomon (1787? – 1850) was a British criminal who acted as a receiver of stolen property. His well-publicised crimes, escape from arrest, recapture and trial led to his transportation to the Australian penal colony of Van Diemen's ...
(1785–1850).
Whitechapel is also the setting of several novels by Jewish authors such as ''Children of the Ghetto'' and ''The King of Schnorrers
The King of Schnorrers is Israel Zangwill's 1894 picaresque novel,Milton Hindus,The King of Schnorrers, by Israel Zangwill, ''Commentary'', March 1954 a collection of amusing tragicomic episodes of '' schnorring'' by "Manasseh Bueno Barzillai Aze ...
'' by Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and be ...
and ''Jew Boy'' by Simon Blumenfeld
Simon Blumenfeld (25 November 1907 – 13 April 2005) was a British columnist, author, playwright, theatre critic, editor and communist.
Although he described himself as Jewish, he was born to a family of Sicily#Demographics, Sicilian refugee ...
. Several chapters of Sholem Aleichem's classic Yiddish novel '' Adventures of Mottel the Cantor's Son'' take place in early 20th-century Whitechapel, depicted from the point of view of an impoverished East European Jewish family fleeing the pogroms. The novel '' Journey Through a Small Planet'' by Emanuel Litvinoff
Emanuel Litvinoff (5 May 1915 – 24 September 2011) was a British writer and well-known figure in Anglo-Jewish literature, known for novels, short stories, poetry, plays and human rights campaigning.
Early years
Litvinoff's early years in what ...
vividly describes Whitechapel and its Jewish inhabitants in the 1920s and 1930s.
The prostitute and daughter of a Luddite leader Sybil Gerard, main character of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's novel The Difference Engine
''The Difference Engine'' (1990) is an alternative history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It is widely regarded as a book that helped establish the genre conventions of steampunk.
It posits a Victorian era Britain in which great t ...
comes from Whitechapel. The novel's plot begins there.
One of the episodes in Michael Moorcock's novel '' Breakfast in the Ruins'' takes place in 1905 Whitechapel, described from the point of view of an eleven year old Jewish refugee from Poland, working with his parents at a sweatshop, who is caught up in the deadly confrontation between Russian revolutionaries and agents of the Czar's Secret Police.
''Brick Lane'', the 2003 novel by Monica Ali is based in Whitechapel and documents the life of a young Bangladeshi woman's experience of living in Tower Hamlets in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Whitechapel is used as a location in most Jack the Ripper fiction
Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who terrorized Whitechapel in 1888, features in works of fiction ranging from gothic novels published at the time of the murders to modern motion pictures, televised dramas and video games.
Important in ...
. One such example is the bizarre ''White Chappel Scarlet Tracings'' (1987) by Iain Sinclair. It also features as the setting for the science fiction Webcomic '' FreakAngels'', written by popular comics writer Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is a British comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ( ...
.
Whitechapel is one of the worldwide locations referenced in Edith Piaf's song ''C'est a Hambourg'
describing the harsh life of prostitutes.
In 2002, Whitechapel was used as the setting for a Sherlock Holmes film, '' The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire'', based on the Arthur Conan Doyle story '' The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire''.
Whitechapel serves as the setting for the television series '' Ripper Street'', which aired 2013–2016.
Education
Transport
History
The East London line extension northwards to Highbury & Islington and southwards to West Croydon was completed in 2010. A further extension opened in 2012 to provide a complete rail ring route around south London to Clapham Junction. Whitechapel is also scheduled to be a stop on the Crossrail project, for which preparatory works began in September 2010 at a large site excavating 'Cambridge Heath Shaft' (located at the eastern end of the Crossrail platform tunnels and adjacent to the junction of Whitechapel Road and Cambridge Heath Road, with Sainsbury's superstore and car park to the north-west of the site and The Blind Beggar
The Blind Beggar is a pub on Whitechapel Road in the East End of London, England.
Due to its location close to Whitechapel Station, the pub is generally described as being in Whitechapel; it is however located just on the Bethnal Green side o ...
public house immediately to the west).
Current
Whitechapel is the main station in the district which is
on the London Underground Hammersmith & City and District lines east–west and also the East London Line and connecting South London Line services north–south (re-opened as London Overground in June 2010)
The Docklands Light Railway (Bank/Tower Gateway branch) and London, Tilbury and Southend line passes through Whitechapel to the south but there are presently no stations.
London Buses 15, 25, 106, 115, 135 135 may refer to:
*135 (number)
*AD 135
*135 BC
*135 film, better known as 35 mm film, is a format of photographic film used for still photography
*135 (New Jersey bus) 135 may refer to:
*135 (number)
*AD 135
*135 BC
*135 film
135 film, mor ...
, 205, 254, D3, N15, N205, N253, N550 and N551 all operate within the area.
Whitechapel is connected to the National Road Network by both the A11 on Whitechapel Road in the centre and to the south the A13 and The Highway A1203 running east–west.
Cycle Superhighway CS2
Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to:
Anthropology and social sciences
* Cyclic history, a theory of history
* Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.
* Social cycle, various cycles in soc ...
runs from Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
to Stratford on the A11.
Nearest places
;Districts
* Bethnal Green
* City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
* Shadwell
* Stepney
* Spitalfields
* Tower Hill
* Wapping
* Mile End
Notable natives or residents
In addition to the prominent figures detailed in the article:
Born in Whitechapel
* Damon Albarn – musician, lead singer of Blur and co-creator of virtual cartoon rock band Gorillaz, born 1968
* Julius Stafford Baker, cartoonist
*Abraham Beame
Abraham David Beame (March 20, 1906February 10, 2001) was the 104th mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy.
...
, first Jewish mayor of New York City, 1906–2001
* Jack Kid Berg
Judah Bergman, known as Jack Kid Berg or Jackie Kid Berg (28 June 1909 – 22 April 1991), was an English boxer born in the East End of London, who became the World Light Welterweight Champion in 1930.
Biography
Judah Bergman was born in Rom ...
, boxer, "The Whitechapel Windmill", British Lightweight Champion 1934
* Stanley Black, bandleader, 1913–2002.
* Simon Blumenfeld
Simon Blumenfeld (25 November 1907 – 13 April 2005) was a British columnist, author, playwright, theatre critic, editor and communist.
Although he described himself as Jewish, he was born to a family of Sicily#Demographics, Sicilian refugee ...
, novelist, playwright and columnist, 1907–2005.
* Georgia Brown (born Lillian Klot), actress and singer, 1933–1992
* Tina Charles, 1970s disco artist, born 1954
* Peter Cheyney
Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse-Cheyney (22 February 1896 – 26 June 1951) was a British crime fiction writer who flourished between 1936 and 1951. Cheyney is perhaps best known for his short stories and novels about agent/detective Lemmy Ca ...
, mystery writer and journalist, 1896–1951
* Jack Cohen, Anglo-Jewish businessman who founded the Tesco supermarket chain, 1898–1979
* Ashley Cole, Chelsea and England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
footballer 1980
* Jack "Spot" Comer, Jewish gangster and anti-Fascist, 1912–1996
* Roger Delgado
Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto (1 March 1918 – 18 June 1973) was a British actor. He played many roles on television, radio and in films, and had "a long history of playing minor villains" before becoming ...
, actor (known for playing "The Master" in ''Doctor Who''), 1918–1973
* Lloyd Doyley, footballer
* Bud Flanagan
Bud Flanagan, (born Chaim Reuben Weintrop, 14 October 1896 – 20 October 1968) was a British music hall and vaudeville entertainer and comedian, and later a television and film actor. He was best known as a double act with Chesney Allen. Fla ...
, (born Chaim Reuven Weintrop), music hall comedian on stage, radio, film and television, 1896–1968
* Micky Flanagan, comedian
* Kemal Izzet
Kemal "Kem" Izzet (; born 29 September 1980) is an English football coach and former professional player. He most notably played for Colchester United between 2001 and 2013, where he made over 400 league appearances. He was previously on the bo ...
, footballer
* Muzzy Izzet, footballer
* Kenney Jones, drummer
* Morris Kestelman, artist
* Charlie Lee, Leyton Orient footballer
* Emanuel Litvinoff
Emanuel Litvinoff (5 May 1915 – 24 September 2011) was a British writer and well-known figure in Anglo-Jewish literature, known for novels, short stories, poetry, plays and human rights campaigning.
Early years
Litvinoff's early years in what ...
, Anglo-Jewish author of '' Journey Through a Small Planet''
* Margaret Pepys (née Kite), mother of diarist Samuel Pepys, d. 1667
* Brendan Perry, founding member of music group Dead Can Dance
* Abe Saperstein
Abraham Michael Saperstein (; July 4, 1902 – March 15, 1966) was the founder, owner and earliest coach of the Harlem Globetrotters. Saperstein was a leading figure in black basketball and baseball from the 1920s through the 1950s, primarily be ...
, founder of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team
* Barry Silkman (born 1952), footballer
* Sarah Taylor, cricketer
* Alan Tilvern, film and television actor, 1918–2003
* Anwar Uddin, captain of Dagenham and Redbridge
* Gary Webster, actor
Resident in or otherwise associated with Whitechapel
* Altab Ali
Altab Ali ( bn, আলতাব আলী; 1953 – 4 May 1978) was a Bangladeshi textile worker stabbed to death in London, in a racially motivated killing. His death sparked widespread outrage and grassroots action that helped to reduce racism ...
, murdered in a Whitechapel park in 1978
* Barney Barnato
Barney Barnato (21 February 1851 – 14 June 1897), born Barnet Isaacs, was a British Randlord, one of the entrepreneurs who gained control of diamond mining, and later, gold mining in South Africa from the 1870s up to World War I. He is perha ...
, diamond mining industrialist and Randlord
Randlords were the capitalists who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa in its pioneer phase from the 1870s up to World War I.
A small number of European financiers, largely of the same generation, gained control o ...
, 1851–1897
* Richard Brandon (? – 20 June 1649), the reputed executioner of King Charles I was buried at the Whitechapel parish church of St Mary Matfelon. The church register records that he lived in Rosemary Lane (modern Royal Mint Street
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Royal, Iowa, a cit ...
).
* Mary Hughes
Dame Mary Ethel Hughes GBE (née Campbell; 6 June 18742 April 1958) was the second wife of Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923. She was the daughter of a well-to-do grazier, and grew up in country New South Wales. She ...
(1860–1941), a voluntary parish worker who initially lived in the Blackwall Buildings
Blackwall Buildings were housing blocks built in 1890 in Thomas Street, Whitechapel. Its first tenants were rehoused from an area that had been cleared during railway construction work, and they paid a nominal rent. By the late 1960s the buildings ...
before moving to a converted pub on Vallance Road where she offered food and shelter to the needy.
* Jack the Ripper, serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
* Charles Lahr
Charles Lahr (27 July 1885 – 1971), born Carl Lahr, was a German-born anarchist, London bookseller and publisher.
Lahr was born at Bad Nauheim in the Rhineland, the eldest of 15 children in a farming family. He left Germany in 1905 to avoid ...
(1885–1971), German-born anarchist, London bookseller and publisher, secretary of the Whitechapel branch of the Industrial Union of Direct Actionists (IUDA)
* Jack London, who wrote ''The People of the Abyss
''The People of the Abyss'' (1903) is a book by Jack London, containing his first-hand account of several weeks spent living in the Whitechapel district of the East End of London in 1902. London attempted to understand the working-class of this ...
'' while staying in Whitechapel – an account of his 1902 stay amongst the East End poor
* Richard Parker, Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
mutineer buried in St Mary Matfelon
* Rudolf Rocker, anarcho-syndicalist writer, historian and prominent activist, active in Whitechapel 1895–1918, 1873–1958
* Obadiah Shuttleworth, composer, violinist and organist of the parish church, d. 1734
* Avrom Stencl
Abraham Nahum Stencl (Polish: Avrom Nokhem Sztencl, he, אברהם נחום שטנצל) (1897-1983) was a Polish-born Yiddish poet.
Life
Stencl was born in Czeladź in south-western Poland, and studied at the yeshiva in Sosnowiec, where his broth ...
(1897–1983), Polish-born Yiddish poet, early companion of Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
, published ''Loshn and Lebn'' in Whitechapel
Future developments
Whitechapel Market and the A11 corridor is currently the subject of a £20 million investment to improve the public spaces along the route. The London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets & Newham are working with English Heritage and Transport for London to refurbish the historic buildings at this location and improve the market.
See also
* British Bangladeshi
* Stepney Historical Trust
Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...
* Whitechapel Mount
Notes
References
External links
Official website
for the ward of Whitechapel
Tower Hamlets History Online
Nighttime photos of Whitechapel and environs
Commentary is in German, but it is mostly photos.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitechapel
Areas of London
Districts of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
District centres of London