London in the late 19th century was quite clearly split into two main classes, rich and poor. There wasn’t really an in-between, and not only were the classes split by income, but also where they lived. The rich mainly resided in the West End of the great city, while the poor in the East End. At the time London was one of the largest cities in the world, and therefore one of the main areas of attraction and action for all. People would come there to make their fortune just as they did New York, some would also come for the entertainment and theatre side of things. If you needed a job, or wanted to have your lucky showbiz break London would be the place for you, at least that’s what the rest of the world saw, in truth it was nothing like that, London wasn’t built to cope with the amount of immigrants that flocked there, and as most were poor, overcrowding and unemployment flourished. There simply weren’t enough jobs for all the inhabitants. As more people became poor, more moved to the East End, and were forced to desperate measures to ensure their own, as well as their families’ survival, this included housing more than one family per room. Women took to prostitution as their main source of income, the men who couldn’t get jobs in factories would work in the fields, but this wasn’t all year round employment, this meant they had to find other ways, some turned to theft and mugging. Others who would not stoop that low, but still had no stable source of income turned to drink, and the rate or amount of alcoholics increased drastically, (but it wasn’t just men, some women spent their income on drink also, possibly to forget how they had earned it). It wasn’t just the inhabitants that caused problems, but the weather and design of the city that contributed to the unwelcoming feel of London. This was an especially big hindrance for those residing in the East End, full of winding streets and smog (a mixture of…
