What jobs were around in 1888 in east London when Jack The Ripper was around?

Answer 1

The east end of London at the time of the Ripper murders, which consisted of the areas known as Whitechapel and Spitalfields, was mostly blue collar. The immigrant population was very high, with many different languages being spoken. The streets were lined with cart mongers selling their wares from a pony cart. Furriers, butchers, textiles, manufacturers, Importing and Exporting (the docks were very close by), and many other businesses occupied the east end during Queen Victoria's reign.

It was common to see very young children hard at work or working hard at begging or stealing. Anything to get a meal. Women would sell flowers or handmade trifles. Prostitution was for many women of the east end, not a choice, but a way to survive in this hostile urban jungle. It was a hard-Scrabble life where infants often times never lived to their first birthday, and the men and women were old at forty, many died before turning fifty.

A fascinating look at London's less fortunate can be found in Jack London's personal experiences, chronicaled in his book 'The People Of The Abyss'. Not a light subject, and not for the squeemish, but a realistic telling of the forgotten people that shared a piece history with the notorious Jack The Ripper.