Archives Live: Whitechapel

• Tasks
• Background
• Speakers

Welcome to Archives Live: Whitechapel! This event was broadcast live on Monday, 13 October, 2025. While you cannot join the live Q&A, you can still watch the event and do the below activities with your students.

The stream lasts for 50 minutes and is aimed at Key Stage 4.

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Below is the link to our resource pack. There are activities students can do before, during and after the event.

Download Resource pack

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Introduction

This resource pack is designed to prepare and support students to take part in the Archives Live: Whitechapel live event. The resources and activities in this pack have been broken up into three different sections: before, during and after the live event.

The event itself has been designed for GCSE students with a focus on the Migration to Britain modules across all exam boards as well as the Crime and Punishment modules – particularly the Edexcel Whitechapel c1870-1900 site study.

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Tasks

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Background

Caribbean migration

During the event, students will learn a little about Caribbean migration to Britain in the 1800s. Migration from this area is often considered to have started with the major wave of the Windrush Generation in the 1940s, but many Caribbean communities established themselves in Britain during the 1800s with notable figures such as Mary Seacole and William Davidson featuring prominently elsewhere in History studies. As this is less of a major ‘wave’ of migration to Whitechapel than the Irish and Jewish stories it should be seen as an example of the connections and opportunities fostered by the docklands.

Crime, Punishment and Poverty in Whitechapel

Alec Munroe’s story should be seen as a case study of both crime and community in the area, working to reinforce some of the learnings students are likely to cover with the ‘Jack the Ripper’ murders while also challenging some preconceptions such as crime requiring isolation from community or helpless victims.

Alec lived in a common lodging house on Little Pearl Street run by Frederick Gehringer, whose family ran several lodging houses and pubs in the area. Gehringer is noted by George Duckworth and Sergeant French in their description of the area for Charles Booth’s poverty map, showing the police were aware of his businesses, which were known for overcrowding and drunken fights. An extract of the notebook has been provided for context on the area, however the investigators writing these notes had clear prejudices against the subjects they were observing, especially concerning race, migration, and poverty. Many comments are dehumanising in nature and should be examined critically.

Irish migration

During the live event, students will learn about the reasons for Irish migration, with a focus on the Driscoll family. At least three members of the family were match makers at the Bryant and May factory in Bow, East London. They were also leaders of the match women’s strike at this factory in 1888.

The 1888 match women’s strike was a pivotal labour movement event where approximately 1,400 female workers at the Bryant & May match factory in Bow, London, walked out to protest appalling working conditions, low wages, and unfair dismissal. Context of Irish migration to Britain Irish people migrated to Britain long before the 19th century, but the Great Famine led to an increased influx. Much of the population were reliant on the potato crop as the main source of food. When the crop failed due to a virus in 1845, mass starvation occurred. . This led to over 1 million deaths and an estimated further two million emigrated to Britain and the USA. Counties Cork and Kerry in the south of Ireland were among the worst hit places. Irish migrants chose to settle in places like Whitechapel for several reasons. There were many factories located in East London, and it was closer to the Thames, offering dock labourers a chance of employment.

Jewish migration

During the event students will be introduced to the Smiths, a Jewish family who emigrated from Poland to East London in the second half of the nineteenth century. They will learn about the reasons why so many Jewish people left Eastern Europe during this time, and why for many, the East End of London became their home. Through an exploration of original documents, students will learn about how this part of London became a cultural hub for the Yiddish speaking Jewish communities that settled there. This section of the broadcast will highlight the importance that culture, language and community played in the lives of migrant communities living in Whitechapel in the late 1800s.

Context of Jewish migration to Britain in the nineteenth century

The second half of the 19th century saw a period of largescale Jewish migration to the UK. This culminated in what became known as ‘The Great Migration’, a period around 1890-1914 when lots of Eastern European Jewish people emigrated to the UK, and especially to East London. By the end of this period, 150,000 Jewish immigrants had settled in the UK. At this time, Jewish people in Eastern Europe were facing a high level of antisemitic persecution and violence that meant it was no longer safe to stay in their mother countries. Alongside this was the general economic hardship for all Eastern Europeans. It was this, along with the promise of job opportunities available in the UK that led to so many Eastern European Jewish people settling in the East End of London in the nineteenth century. Concentrated in areas like Spitalfields and Whitechapel, they established a vibrant cultural and commercial centre with Yiddish theatres, synagogues, newspapers and institutions catering to their community.

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Speakers

About our speakers and host

Sarah Elizabeth Cox

Sarah Elizabeth Cox works in marketing for the British Science Association by day, and as a boxing and wrestling historian by night. She holds Masters Degrees in History from Goldsmiths, University of London, and International Relations from the University of East Anglia. Sarah researches biographies of late-Victorian and Edwardian boxers and wrestlers, piecing together the previously-hidden lives of those on the margins in the melting pot of London, with a focus on men recently arrived from the US and Caribbean to 1880s London. Across 2022-23 Sarah worked as a historical consultant on Steven Knight’s Disney+ bareknuckle boxing and crime TV drama A Thousand Blows, which is part-inspired by her research into the boxers Alec Munroe and Hezekiah Moscow. Sarah has written for magazines and newspapers and appeared on podcasts, including BBC History. Her first book, a group biography of 1880s boxers, will be published by Duckworth in Autumn 2026. www.grapplingwithhistory.com

Breda Corish

Breda Corish is an Irish public historian who explores the multifaceted presence of Ireland and Irish people in London over the centuries. After a long career in the scientific information industry, Breda returned to university in 2020. She was awarded the Francis Clark Prize by Queen Mary University of London, graduating top of the BA History cohort with a dissertation on the intersection of sanitary reform, cholera and Irish migrants in mid-nineteenth century Whitechapel. At University College London, she was commended in the Dean’s List for exceptional performance and received the MA Public History dissertation prize for her research project www.irishlondonhistory.com. Breda is now an independent researcher who welcomes every opportunity to share the many, sometimes surprising, historical connections between London and Ireland.

Theo Daniels

Theo Daniels is the Producer: Communities and Informal Learning at the Jewish Museum London where he has worked for two years; researching, developing, and delivering engaging sessions that further the Museum’s aims to tell the story of the history and heritage of Jewish people in Britain through universal themes of migration, family, faith and culture. The Jewish Museum is currently functioning as a groundbreaking ‘Museum Beyond Walls’, having moved out of their Camden home in 2023, and preparing for the ‘Museum of the Future’ long-term plan. During this time, the Learning and Engagement Team work with schools (virtual classrooms, outreach sessions at London schools, loan boxes, and free virtual broadcasts); family audiences; people affected by dementia; and adult engagement with the Museum’s collection.

Jenny Draper

Jenny Draper has worked in the museums and heritage sector and now leads walking tours across London as a blue-badge certified private tour guide. She is passionate about teaching the public entertaining and fascinating titbits about history through her social media channels and her book ‘Mavericks’ published earlier this year. She has previously presented Archives Live: Tudors for The National Archives which is available to watch on our website now.

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