London's shadows : the dark side of the Victorian city

The Dark Side of the Victorian CityIn 1888 London was the capital of the most powerful empire the world had ever known, and the largest city in Europe. In the West, a new city was growing, populated by the middle classes, the epitome of ‘Victorian values'. Across the city the situation was very different. The East End of London had long been considered a nether world, a dark and dangerous region outside the symbolic ‘walls' of the original City.Using the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper as a focal point, this book explores prostitution and pornography, poverty, revolutionary politics, immigration, the creation of a criminal underclass and the development of policing. It also considers how the sensationalist 'new journalism' took the news of the Ripper murders to all corners of the Empire and to the United States. This is the dark underbelly of London's Victorian history. Contents 6 Acknowledgements 7 List of Illustrations 8 1 Creating the ‘Myth’ of Jack the Ripper 10 2 Murder and Mayhem in Victorian London: The Whitechapel Murders of 1888 in Context 30 3 East Meets West: The Contrasting Nature of Victorian London and the Mixed Community of the East End 64 4 Read All About It! Ripper News and Sensation in Victorian Society 104 5 The Bitter Cry of Outcast London: Poverty, Charity and the Fear of Revolution 126 6 City of Dreadful Delights: Vice, Prostitution and Victorian Society 154 7 Crime and the Criminal Class in Late Victorian London 176 8 Watching the Detectives: The Police and the Hunt for Jack the Ripper 218 9 London’s Shadows: The Darker Side of the Victorian Capital 240 Notes 248 Bibliography 272 Index 282 A 282 B 282 C 283 D 283 E 284 F 284 G 284 H 284 I 285 J 285 K 285 L 285 M 286 N 287 O 287 P 287 Q 287 R 287 S 288 T 289 U 289 V 289 W 289 X 289 Y 289 In 1888 London was the capital of the most powerful empire the world had ever known, and the largest city in Europe. In the west a new city was growing, populated by the middle classes, the epitome of 'Victorian values'. Across the city the situation was very different. The East End of London had long been considered a nether world, a dark and dangerous region outside the symbolic 'walls' of the original City. Using the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper as a focal point, this book explores prostitution and pornography, poverty, revolutionary politics, immigration, the creation of a criminal underclass and the development of policing. It also considers how the sensationalist 'new journalism' took the news of the Ripper murders to all corners of the Empire and to the United States. This is the dark underbelly of London's Victorian history. --Publisher description Drew Gray. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.