Culture And Criminal History Of The East End London

Venturing out to the eastern subset of the city of London, the neighborhood of the East End welcomes people with a completely different, fascinating and edgy vibes, from which people have seen in the West End of the city of London. Many findings are led to how the community living at the East End has been drastically changed, since before 19th century to nowadays, the engagement of those who transitioned the social, cultural and the living conditions and the history and the heritage of dangers that lurk in the night of the streets of East End, London.

While the subject “criminality fictions”(Bennett 2018) that limits the support of authorities to intervene in the history, the compositions of characters and settings in the literature and art representations that are influenced by the society's reactions to the culture, society and art of East End London, were continued to be beloved by later generation, especially multicultural community.

The persona of East End London was quite complex. East End was regarded as socially and economically deprived area of the city of London, since its existence was known. It was widely agreed that the place was predominated by immigrants, consisted of rich mix of different cultural backgrounds. The Victorian era made the best contrast on the reflection to the living conditions immigrants and the working poor.

Among the immigrants, the Jewish migrants and foreign refugees have the most influence in market trading in East End. The profound effect of immigrant community facilitated the working middle-class image but acknowledged as “the dream-England is no more than a dream. Sadly, it’s a dream from which too many white Britons refuse to awake.” (Newland 2008) which indicated the idea that immigrants’ communities seek to subjugate and dominate the others.

On the other hand, East End London was a symbolic territory that had residential segregations, as many became associated with over populations, poverty and homelessness. Even though, there were working-class, most of the professions were self-claimed and not many of them were not skilled labours. “The survival for the fittest” was the mentality and it radically heightened the possibility of social disaster (Newland 2008). So, there were encouragement for robbery, scams, murders and planned crimes amidst the streets of East End. The absence of police operation and observations were part of civil disorder and it worsened the situation.

Basically, the community reside in East End began to practice a gang culture to secure the position or the standing as a dominant race among the foreign or domestic. The tension about danger of stumbling with different gangs led to focus attention to anti-alienism (Grey 2013)and segregations of the population from the civilized English culture. The prejudice born from the ignorance and misunderstanding the fact that not all people behaved the same way brought East End to a revolutionary socialism.

The stereotypes of women working in the Victorian era were look down upon in a very significant way. Especially if they were not literate enough to understand the duality of “reality” and “imagination” that what fictions has be depicting them as. The novelist in the 19th century either mocked or did not conduct the cause of women labour and prostitution. “Beer, dancers, bets” (Worth 2013). Public image of women in slum is nothing but sexual objects that took pleasure by men. Women could not be hidden from prying eyes. What’s worse was if the woman was pregnant and if she could not afford to bring up or feed her child, her choices were either get rid of the child or register her child for an adoption. Many did not agree with both, and became more hysterical to live.

Due to the extreme poverty in the East End, men, women, and even children had to work in order to survive the starvation in the “filthy slum”. Without a place called home, many rent a place to stay for a night to escape from the weather conditions. This brought up the topic of public health in Victorian period. The hygiene and sanitation were not part of the accommodation and specifically if overcrowding lodging houses were the apex places to trigger new disease. As the time gone by, it became impossible to recover from the illness and faced death before their time.

Contemplating on all of the history and culture, set up the characters and background settings for the popularized criminality and investigation fictions, which was one of the engaging attributes to voice their concerns and fantasies by the 19th century novelists. One example such as “Jack the Ripper. This name will always be associated with East End, London (WordPress 2014). The mystery of Jack the Ripper apparently much more socially effective to community than any other new. It was psychologically urging to know about the murder mysteries that even the reasons were unknown. “Of course, much of this contemporary mud-slinging was initiated by the editors of the London newspapers, keen to provide their readers with a social commentary on the murders and to ensure the story remained uppermost in the public imagination so that increased circulation rates were maintained” (Grey 2013)

As the popularity for criminality fictions grew, the public perspectives of anti-hero (Bennett 2018) and the tangible links to the darker side East End stories, developed the hidden fantasy in fictions. The thought process of criminal mind in fiction was top of the people’s reading list. For reasons such as the lead character being lack of heroic qualities and appeal uniqueness to the reader in intelligence, dynamism or the social purpose.

It can be either positive or negative traits that impressively portrayed the darkness within the character and aspect of the human life. This is not only just for amusement but also to have a clear understanding of evidence and connection in murders with the help of social commentaries, both the truth and the imaginary. Supposedly, if the setting of murder is accessible to the public in East End, the darker the night get, the more careful the people will commute and watch each other back.

The conspiracy of East End murderer generally falls into three types: ‘English milord’, mad doctor or foreigner, in particular an immigrant Jew (Grey 2013). The multi-cultured environment of East End is pinpointed in way that “foreigner is the suspect” by the anti-alienism community. The resentment tension in both literature and art representation shows how the prejudice about racial resentments campaigns and protests were originated. The transitions from being an oppressed community to a bold community that stand for what considered as right. Nowadays, the reflection on what was done in centuries ago is a fascinating experience and the historian and artist would not want the sentiment of the community, in the East Ends, to disappear. Therefore, organizing and preserving the historic sites, artifacts, photographs, literatures and heritage of the famous and infamous “Jack the Ripper” as one of the attractions to visit in East End, London.

Once remarked as the poorest and the most dangerous environment to reside in, East End London was actually contradictory to that remark at the present time. However, it is advisable not to travel alone in the night with care as danger have tendency to arise in many ways. One of the surprising elements of East End todays was the existence of the extravagant shopping center at Canary Warf, just like from rags-to-riches fables (Newland 2018).

The success of the generation that demonstrate the campaigns for development in the earlier times paid off to the generation to live in the wealthier pastures. This is not only worth the shopping trip, but also surrounded by many famous street arts and trendy zone. Another top tourist attraction in the East End is the famous Sunday market (WordPress 2014), which is similar to the Spitalfields which was also the trading market even before the Victorian era. The market has collections of vintage and hipster vibe clothing, artesian restaurants and stalls that bring back the vivid essences of East End.

The final remark that made its way to promote the development of East End that we see today was the evolutions of the political stand point of the society. The rich or the poor, the educated or the illiterate, the standpoint implemented the independency for political and cultural makeover. By embracing the optimism to represent the accurate depictions of costermongers and the street slangs made a more acceptable and engaging presence to the authorities and to the society. The rise of the Victorian press and journalism played part in the relationship between cultures such as developing a common ground to think about concerns and political statements (Newland 2018). Despite of creating moral panic news report, the restrictions on press were not as strict enough to prevent it from happening. Later recognized as “educational democracy” (Grey 2013), the authorities believed as the press will more positive impact in a way that it increased the knowledges of the residents. Additionally, the news press allowed the exposure to the accountability enquires by the politicians who campaigned to improve society in all areas, by highlighting the purpose of the protests.

East End, London has always been the setting for many films and tv series. This was one of the efforts to document the inspiration and share the hope and the hard work that has been carried out and make social history readily available to a larger audience. The genre of the films was inspired to be more of an unusual twist on the “slasher” and “thriller” (WordPress 2014) actions to replicate the historical crimes and activities. There will be a room to study history throughout these films, that can represent, so close to the accuracy of what happened, at that period of time.

The ideology represented in films and tv series might differ from one to another, depending of the directors’ point of view. One example, the suffered poor became part of the system and be able to support themselves within it via revolutionary reform and the other poor become part of the system by the share of wealth among the populations’ public fund, raised by taxations or the charity, which is compared to a social parasite. By comparison, one suggestion indicates the individualism whilst the other suggesting “collectivism” (Grey 2013).

In conclusion, East End, London has valuable history that reflects the different approaches of the problems of the society, the difference in positions in regards of the poor and the riches and their roles, the evolutions of characteristic of many intellectuals and same minded community from the Victorian era to this present day. The urban development facilitated by the socio-cultural and economic transformation, by mean of breaking the stereotypes, seems to represent the heart of urban civilization. However, the foreignness might still reside in the deeper part of that darkness that is still lurking in the modern East End, London.