Victorian Whitechapel was a dangerous place indeed, and strangers entered certain pockets of the district at their peril.
Aside from the threat posed by a chance encounter with the likes of Jack the Ripper, or the fact that street gangs were rife in the area, there were so many threats awaiting the intrepid wayfarer, that you can’t help wondering why anyone would go there in the first place!
All manner of ne’er-do-wells were lurking in the shadows ready to rob and beat those who they might consider worth robbing and beating.
One of the most dangerous pasts times for anyone to partake in was drinking in one of the area’s many public houses or drinking dens, not because the beer posed a threat to the well being of imbibers, but rather because alcohol appears to have been at the root of many a case of violent death, when tempers, fuelled by excessive drinking, frayed, and spilled over into fights or street brawls.
The Evening News, in its edition of Saturday the 12th of May, 1900, carried the following story that shows the dangers posed by a night spent drinking in the Victorian East End:-
SUSPICIOUS DEATH IN WHITECHAPEL
Cattleman Killed by a Severe Blow on the Head.
An inquest was held today at Whitechapel into the death of Charles Boyd, a cattleman, who died under suspicious circumstances in the Working Men’s Home, 28 Thrawl Street, Spitalfields.
The evidence showed that the deceased and two other cattlemen arrived from Liverpool on May 6, and took lodgings at the above address.
FOUND UNCONSCIOUS
After being out all day on Tuesday they returned home, all very drunk.
Two of them left to join their ship, and the deceased went to bed, where be was subsequently found by the night watchman in an unconscious condition. He died the next day without regaining consciousness.
THE DOCTOR’S EVIDENCE
Dr. Goodman, of Hanbury Street, Spitalfields, deposed to having made a post mortem examination, and to having found a bruise on the left ear and the skin being torn.
He also found a large clot of blood on the left side of the brain and a lineal fracture four inches in length on the left side of the skull, obviously the result of direct violence.
The injury might have been caused by some instrument or by a direct blow with the fist.
CORONER’S OPINION AND VERDICT
The Coroner said that the deceased might have been fighting and had got knocked own.
An open verdict was returned by the jury.