East End of London - Whitechapel

The Whitechapel area of today is not the Whitechapel I remember from forty years ago. It’s always been a bad area and as far as I could see on my visits recently it still is! One noticeable change is that it seems to been almost completely taken over by the Asian community. Unfortunately this seems to have done nothing to improve the place, in fact it may be helping to turn it into an Islamic ghetto judging by the way some of the women are made to dress in the street.
The Royal London Hospital takes up a very large part of the area. The main entrance is in Whitechapel Road itself and the rest of the departments spread out through all the street at the rear. I used to work in a pub at the back of the hospital in the days before Tower House was closed up and saw the plight of the homeless alcoholics who were all over the area at that time because they could get a room there. Booth House is still there for these people in the main road, but I wonder what happened to the regular Tower House users.
This was also Jack the Ripper’s hunting ground, the narrow back streets of Whitechapel, many years ago. I’m afraid that this is the only mention he will get on this page as there are many other web sites devoted to him that contain more information and theories about his identity than I could ever cram on here.

In 1940, three houses were purchased on Commercial Road in the east end of London and a permanent place of prayer was setup to replace the previous arrangement where a small room was hired on Fridays for Jumma prayers. The following year, the combined houses were inaugurated as the "East London Mosque" and became the focal point for the growing number of migrant workers taking part in the rebuilding of the city in the post-war era.
In 1975, the local authority bought the properties under a compulsory purchase order but provided temporary buildings on Whitechapel Road. The local community set about raising funds to erect a purpose built mosque on the site which was boosted by a contribution from the King of Saudi Arabia. Seven years later, the re-building of the new mosque commenced with foundations laid down in 1982 and completion achieved in 1985. Excerpt from Wikipedia entry.

The London Hospital as it was then known, was founded in 1740 and the medical college in 1785. This was the first in the country.
The Royal London amalgamated with Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital (Barts) in 1995 under the aegis of Queen Mary, University of London, to become Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry.
It is at the moment undergoing major alterations and additions to the complex to make it an even better hospital in the future. Dame Edith Cavell was once a nurse there
There have been many famous people pass through it’s doors over the years as patients but one of the most famous and also the saddest must be Joseph Merrick, known as the “Elephant Man” , who spent the last years of his life there.

I spent some time working in Whitechapel during the early 1970’s and at that time seemed to be the Mecca for alcoholics, ‘winos’ and down and outs. They were everywhere, with their bottles of cider and VP Wine or worse still, methylated spirits. Many had to sleep rough in the parks or in shop doorways. Others, who could manage to look and act sober (or indeed were genuinely sober) and had the small cost of admission, could get a bed for the night in Fieldgate Street at Tower House. Booth House, the Salvation Army hostel, was along Whitechapel Road, and offered the same service, but were far stricter than Tower House about who got the beds.
Tower House was one of the famous Rowton Houses opened all over London by Lord Rowton in the late 1800’s. This philanthropist was also a member of the Guinness Trust. He put massive amounts of cash into the project. It closed permanently quite a few years ago. Booth House is still doing the job today, but Tower House stood derelict for years until the property developers realised it’s money making potential and has now had a complete reversal of roles. Since 2006 it has been luxury housing for the rich city boys who seem to think the East End is the fashionable place to be now.

The Whitechapel Art Gallery, which was founded in 1901, is in Whitechapel Road itself and is normally associated with exhibitions of modern art. It was founded by Canon Samuel Augustus Barnett. He mounted exhibitions to bring art into the lives of local East Enders. Today the Whitechapel Art Gallery runs a programme of exhibitions of modern art throughout the year.
Following the former Whitechapel library’s move to a new facility, the gallery has acquired the building to restore it and keep it open as a free art gallery all year round.
I can only give brief details here, for more information go to their website >>