Book description
In 1888, Whitechapel - at the heart of the inner East End - was the
most (in)famous place in the country, widely imagined as a site of the
blackest and deepest horror. Its streets and alleys were seen as
violent and dangerous, overflowing with poverty and depravity. This
book aims to uncover the reality of East End life. Sections look at
slum housing, immigration, attitudes to women, poverty, violence and
crime. The book examines how the brutal killings were reported and how
the police tried to identify the murderer. A final section shows how
Jack the Ripper has shaped our vision of London, and influenced our
popular culture.
Jack the Ripper and the East End coincides with an exhibition
organised by the Museum of London at their Museum in Docklands. Key
surviving documents from the National Archives and the London
Metropolitan Archives will be on display - in addition to material
from the collections of the Museum of London such as photographs of
the Whitechapel Mission. The illustrations for the book will include
rare and unpublished photographs, sections of the 'master' Booth Map
of Poverty, detectives' reports and original letters.
The introduction will be written by Peter Ackroyd, who is the
acknowledged expert on London, its darker aspects and how its history
has seeped into its very stones. Leading historians and curators will
provide additional insights. This is a book which will be valued for
years to come for its enduring and important portrait of the Victorian
East End.
Contributors include: Peter Ackroyd, author of London:
The Biography and Thames: Sacred River;
Clive Bloom
, author of Violent London and Gothic Horror;
John Marriott
, editor of six collections on 19th century London; Anne Kershen
, author of Huguenots, Jews and Bangladeshis in
Spitalfields; Louise Jackson
, author of books on children, women and the police in the 19th
century; and Laura Vaughan, expert on poverty in Victorian London.
The exhibition is curated by Alex Werner, who organised the
London Bodies exhibition and the CD Journeys through
Victorian London. Alex Werner is editing and collating
the contributions.
