Housing and overcrowding

• Out of a Whitechapel population of 30000, perhaps 1000 were homeless.
• The majority of housing was in overcrowded slum areas known as rookeries. Houses were divided into several apartments, and there could be up to 30 people in one apartment.
• The 1881 census shows the total population of the Whitechapel District as over 30500 – and there were only just over 4000 occupied houses. This contrasted sharply with the large, comfortable houses in wealthier parts of London.
• Accommodation was also offered by lodging houses which offered little more than a bed in squalid conditions. Some lodging houses had three eight-hour sleeping shifts a day, so beds could be shared between three people. This was a key cause of disease, especially in the summer.
• It is estimated that there were over 200 lodging houses in Whitechapel, where more than 8000 people (a quarter of the Whitechapel population) lived.
• Sanitation in Whitechapel was also very poor; there was little healthy drinking water and sewers ran in the streets.