The National Archives > Exhibitions > 1901 Census
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By 1901, the area of east London known as Spitalfields
(now Whitechapel) had become home to a large Jewish population. From
1881, mounting persecution in eastern Europe and Russia led to the arrival
of thousands of Jewish immigrants. They made their way to the tenement
houses of Spitalfields already occupied by a considerable Jewish working-class
community. By 1901, parts of Spitalfields had a 95% Jewish population,
this proportion of foreign-born inhabitants being among the highest
in the country. This same area now has a high proportion of residents
of Bangladeshi origin, continuing a long tradition of immigration into
this part of London.
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Follow this link to immigration. By the time of the 1901 Census, the area around Flower and Dean Street in Spitalfields contained a wide range of dwellings, from slum properties and cheap lodging houses to newly-built model housing for the poor. Connecting to Brick Lane in the east and to Commercial Street in the west, Flower and Dean Street was fronted along most of its north side by the flats of the Nathaniel Dwellings and along half of its south side by those of the Charlotte de Rothschild Dwellings. Although desperately cramped as family homes by modern standards, these Rothschild Buildings were constructed as model housing. Follow this link to housing and the Rothschild
Buildings. In the 1870s, this street and those around it had had the reputation of being the poorest and most dangerous in the East End of London. Alarmed by the miserable condition of the newcomers to the area and fearing to be associated with their poverty and alien culture, the established Anglo-Jewish bourgeoisie (as represented by the Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Jewish Poor) took action. Baron Nathan Meyer de Rothschild, the unofficial leader of Anglo-Jewry, formed a company to build cheap tenement dwellings for Jewish tenants while at the same time providing a reasonable return to its shareholders. The Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company was formed in 1885 and opened the Rothschild Dwellings to tenants in April 1887. Further redevelopment of the area soon received a lurid impetus: all five of Jack the Ripper's victims lived in, or had connections with, Flower and Dean Street and its immediate environs. These events led to both a renewed interest in slum clearance and public outrage at the activities of slum landlords. Most of the rest of Flower and Dean Street was bought by the Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company in 1891 and the Nathaniel Dwellings opened the following year. The tenants of the two buildings were mostly, but by no means entirely, Jews and had mainly emigrated from Eastern Europe and Russia. They brought with them to the Spitalfield area their trades, predominantly tailoring, cabinet making and cigarette manufacture. |
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The religious
needs of the residents were met by a wide range of places of worship within
walking distance of Flower and Dean Street: from the grand Ashkenazi synagogue
at Duke's Place in the City of London (destroyed in the Second World War)
to the Great Synagogue in Fournier Street, Spitalfields (once a Huguenot
chapel and today a mosque) as well as by a multitude of smaller local
schuls. |
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Shops such as kosher butchers, bakers, grocers and the like were all to hand both in Brick Lane and in Flower and Dean Street itself. In the other direction, in Wentworth Street, was the 'Lane' in which was held the market for all the Jewish East End. The majority of the tenants of the Rothschild and Nathaniel Dwellings were young married couples and their children received education in accordance with their religion both at state schools and at voluntary schools such as the Jews' Infant School in Commercial Street and the famous Jews' Free School, at one time the largest in the country. Follow this link to education at Commercial Street school. |
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