The Perils of Urban Living

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The Anglo tradition of social geography mainly consists of the rich moving out of the inner city and the poor moving in to crowded, dirty neighborhoods. Cities have long been associated with vice and filth, and the crime rates and hygiene of post-urbanization in London confirm these generalizations. While hygiene was improved through public works and the crime through the establishment of the Metropolitan Police, the poor neighborhoods of Whitechapel and Spitalfields were still known in Victorian London as foul, dirty, and full of immorality. Flower and Dean Street, where Nichols, Stride, and Eddowes lived at one point, had a horrible reputation; combined with Thrawl Street, it makes up what was known as the "evil quarter mile" in Spitalfields.

If it was Jack the Ripper’s intent to terrify inhabitants of both the East and West Ends, he succeeded. Even members of society who were far removed from the streets of Whitechapel felt the presence of the Ripper; those citizens who lived near his haunts were especially fearful. Jack the Ripper was a clear example of how dangerous walking the streets could be, and of course his influence was especially strong among prostitutes. Groups of women could frequently be seen consoling each other that what seemed like imminent doom would not reach them.

The police’s inability to produce credible suspects further led the public to lose faith in the force that was establish only 60 years prior. At this time, the public had grown to trust the police, but with the Ripper case, it seemed that the evils of the city had triumphed over order and investigation. Of course, the public has always and will continue to fear the "secret police" or governmental espionage agencies, a fear which has found its way into the Ripper case through the modern presentation of a Royal conspiracy (for a full explication of the theory, read the book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution, by Stephen Knight. The graphic novel From Hell was based on the theory of this book; it was recently turned into a major motion picture).

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