Section C: Tensions in Whitechapel 

Irish immigrants 

1. The Irish population expanded rapidly in the East End from the 1840s.  

2. In the first instance they were mostly young men who came to London with plans to move to America but then ran out of money to get there.  

3. They settled near the river and made their living as ‘navigators’ or ‘navvies’, doing jobs on canals, roads and railways, or as dockers on the River Thames. Violence was common and they were not well liked.  

4. By the late 19^th century, some Irish nationalists were demanding freedom from rule by the UK. The fight was led by the Catholic Fenians, who were seen as terrorists. When they organised a bomb attack on Clerkenwell Prison in December 1867, there was a huge surge in anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment.  

5. A new department of the Metropolitan Police, known as Special Branch, was forced to counter Irish terrorism.  

Eastern European Jewish immigrants 

1. In 1881, the Russian Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and a Jew was blamed. This led to a wave of pogroms in Russia, Poland and Germany. Many Jews fled to London.  

2. By 1888, parts of Whitechapel were 95% Jewish.  

3. The Jewish settlers were widely resented by the local population for the following reasons:  

1. Some locals resented their success in setting up businesses 

2. New arrivals from Eastern Europe were often desperate for work and would accept lower wages and would sell their products cheaper. 

3. Because they had their holy day on Saturday, they were free to work on Sundays, unlike local businesses. 

4. Their religious and cultural traditions meant they stood out, and not all of them spoke English.  

4. As tension between immigrant and local populations over housing and jobs increased, antisemitic attitudes and beatings of Jewish people became common.  

5. When the Ripper murders happened, imaginary sketches of Jack the Ripper showed stereotyped caricatures of Jews, with hooked noses, dark beards and felt hats.  

6. Two parliamentary committees were formed to look into rising tension in the East End, but they changed little. 

Growth of anarchism and socialism 

1. Anarchy was growing in popularity across Europe: this is a movement that opposes all forms of organised government.  

2. In 1871 anarchists and other revolutionaries briefly took control of Paris, but then the revolution failed. A lot of the leaders fled to London. This led some people in London to fear the growth of terrorism, especially among the Eastern European communities there.  

3. In 1893, Special Branch began an undercover operation to monitor the activities of Eastern European revolutionaries.  

4. Socialist ideas were also spreading. In 1881 the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was the first socialist party set up in Britain. Its leaders, sometimes known as Radicals, wanted a revolution to bring down the existing capitalist system.  

5. The SDF was involved in the Trafalgar Square demonstration of 1887 that led to the Bloody Sunday massacre.  

6. Socialists saw the police as the public face of a government that cared nothing for downtrodden people.