5 Whites Row Whitechapel

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EBJ
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Jan 2022 09 16:36

5 Whites Row Whitechapel

I've been researching my mums side of the family and found pictures of the dwellings and streets my mum, nan and great, great gran lived in.

5 whites row 2.jpg

5 Whites Row Whitechapel where my nan lived and my mum was born in 1927, one of only a couple of buildings that survive there today.

Great, great nans home.jpg

My great, great grans place now demolished and only the archway remains, the building was called "The Rothchild's Four Percent Dwellings" which were in Flower and Dean street Whitechapel just a few streets away from where my mum was born. Both in the day were where Jack The Ripper plied his trade and my great, great gran as a young lady was living in his stalking area's, both were back then slums as were many dwelling house with shared toilets and even kitchens and Whitechapel was not a nice area in Victorian times.
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Jan 2022 09 17:55

Re: 5 Whites Row Whitechapel

That's fascinating. You've obviously done some homework to get those photos. Life was very different back then and there was a lot of poverty in the Victorian age.

There is a 2 part documentary about Bible John who murdered 3 women (and possibly more) in Glasgow in the '60's (not that different from the Victorian slums). They never did catch him. But I was fascinated about the Glasgow slums where people couldn't afford glass in the windows, rarely had any heating (and it gets very cold in Scotland), they shared 2-3 families to a room, didn't have toilets... Really interesting insight into how we used to live. Youngsters these day don't know what poverty really is. Once a week they went to a dance, their only escape from their daily lives which was really hard. Crime was riff.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011xrm

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Jan 2022 10 09:29

Re: 5 Whites Row Whitechapel

It is very interesting. The Victorian era really was "was the best of times, it was the worst of times" as Dickens put it. Sometimes forgotten about now, especially as it doesn't fit the modern narrative that assumes that during the heyday of the British Empire that everyone in the UK was living the life of Riley.

I saw an episode recently of Steptoe and Son and I can't remember the figure but they talked about how many millions of people (in the mid 1960s) did not even have an indoor toilet.
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Jan 2022 10 11:52

Re: 5 Whites Row Whitechapel

When i was a child we lived on in a ground floor flat with two bedrooms, a scullery and outside toilet {bang the door before you went in so the rats and mice ran out),and a tin bath hanging on the wall we used on a Sunday night. No electricity just gas light and oven and two coal/coke fire places, us kids you to take an old pram to the gas works where they sold coal/coke and buy a bag off the back of a lorry and told to pick up any dropped in the road.

In winter the windows froze on the inside and our coat's were extra warmth put on top of the bedding, and if your mantel in the gas light got damaged or worn out you would not have any light for weeks until mum could afford to replace it. the street was our playground as not many cars back then in the early 50's and you shopped local as there was always every shop you needed within walking distance, hard times but great growing up as a kid. [Like.png]

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Jan 2022 10 12:25

Re: 5 Whites Row Whitechapel

EBJ wrote: 10th Jan 2022 at 11:52am

In winter the windows froze on the inside and our coat's were extra warmth put on top of the bedding,
not many cars back then in the early 50's and you shopped local as there was always every shop you needed within walking distance, hard times but great growing up as a kid. [Like.png]
Being brought up as a west country boy in the middle of nowhere, Rayburn in the kitchen for heat/hot water, no double glazing, nearest shops 4 miles away, just a mobile shop visited once a week and Mum and I used to walk 1.5 miles to the nearest hamlet on a Friday evening to get fish n chips from mobile!
Apparently the winter of 62-63 was fun as the farm was snowed in for weeks, too young to remember that.
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Jan 2022 10 13:35

Re: 5 Whites Row Whitechapel

EBJ wrote: 10th Jan 2022 at 11:52am When i was a child we lived on in a ground floor flat with two bedrooms, a scullery and outside toilet {bang the door before you went in so the rats and mice ran out),and a tin bath hanging on the wall we used on a Sunday night. No electricity just gas light and oven and two coal/coke fire places, us kids you to take an old pram to the gas works where they sold coal/coke and buy a bag off the back of a lorry and told to pick up any dropped in the road.
Sadly I'm also old enough to remember all of that, I also remember playing on bomb sites. Elf and safety wasn't even invented back then... [Scared.png]

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Jan 2022 10 20:30

Re: 5 Whites Row Whitechapel

The old slum flats we lived in believe or not Prince Williams wife Kate her grandmother also lived in one, when her grandfather died they moved from the street and 3 bed house they were renting as the gran could not afford the rent any more so it was carry or push everything around the corner to our block of cheaper flats.
dudley road flats.jpg
The flats i lived in circled via an aerial picture taken over the top of the gas holder and railway, the triangle patch was the only bit of grass we had to play on.
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Jan 2022 11 09:58

Re: 5 Whites Row Whitechapel

In the 1881 Census taken on Sunday 3rd April and the total population of England, Wales and Scotland at the time was recorded as 29,707,207 people residing in the United Kingdom.
Persons residing at the address 5 Whites Row Whitechapel were,
William Sanders/Saunders Furniture Dealer
Agnes Singleton Tailoress
Agnes Singleton Paper Bag Maker
Richard Singleton Scholar/Slipper Maker
William Singleton Scholar/Slipper Maker.

In the London Post Office Directory's of 1885 and 1890
5 Whites Row Whitechapel was occupied by Evan Edwards Cow-keeper/Dairyman.

Hopefully when time allows I will check out other Census available. [Cool.png]
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Jan 2022 11 10:38

Re: 5 Whites Row Whitechapel

Founded in 1885 by Nathaniel, 1st Lord Rothschild (1840 - 1915), the Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company was established to provide " the industrial classes with commodious and healthy Dwellings at a minimum rent" and was primarily aimed at serving the Jewish Population in East London, who suffered from overcrowding and poor accommodation. For more information check out the website below, I hope it works. [Scared.png]

www.jewisheastend.com/fourpercentdwellings
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Jan 2022 11 10:57

Re: 5 Whites Row Whitechapel

Found this interesting website, I hope the link works [Scared.png]

https://www.ids.org.uk/about-us/the-history-of-us/
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