in little gangs and knots of three or four, and you will also see
them inside, but for the most part they are accompanied by their men.
Sergeant Prior of the H division, for whose services I am indebted to
the courtesy of Superintendent White, assured me that when sailors
landed in the docks, and drew their wages, they picked up some women to
whom they considered themselves married pro tem., and to whom they gave
the money they had made by their last voyage. They live with the women
until the money is gone, (and the women generally treat the sailors
honourably). They go to sea again, make some more, come home, and
repeat the same thing over again. There are perhaps twelve or fifteen
public-houses licensed for music in St. George’s Street and Ratcliff
Highway: most of them a few years ago were thronged, now they can
scarcely pay their expenses; and it is anticipated that next year many
of them will be obliged to close.
This is easily accounted for. Many sailors go further east to the K
division, which includes Wapping, Bluegate, &c.; but the chief cause,
the _fons et origo_ of the declension is simply the institution of
sailors’ savings banks. There is no longer the money to be spent that
there used to be. When a sailor comes on shore, he will probably go to
the nearest sailors’ home, and place his money in the bank. Drawing
out again a pound or so, with which he may enjoy himself for a day or
two, he will then have the rest of his money transmitted to his friends
in the country, to whom he will himself go as soon as he has had his
fling in town; so that the money that used formerly to be expended in
one centre is spread over the entire country, ergo and very naturally
the public-house keepers feel the change acutely. To show how the
neighbourhood has improved of late years, I will mention that six or
eight years ago the Eastern Music Hall was frequented by such ruffians
that the proprietor told me he was only too glad when twelve o’clock
came, that he might shut the place up, and turn out his turbulent
customers, whose chief delight was to disfigure and ruin each other’s
physiognomy.
Mr. Wilton has since then rebuilt his concert-room, and erected a
gallery that he sets apart for sailors and their women. The body of the
hall is filled usually by tradesmen, keepers of tally-shops, &c., &c.
And before we go further a word about tally-shops. Take the New
Road, Whitechapel, which is full of them. They present a respectable
appearance, are little two-storied houses, clean, neat, and the owners
are reputed to have the Queen’s taxes ready when the collectors call
for them. The principle of the tally business is this:--A man wants
a coat, or a woman wants a shawl, a dress, or some other article of
feminine wearing apparel. Being somewhat known in the neighbourhood,
as working at some trade or other, the applicant is able to go to the
tally-shop, certain of the success of his or her application.
She obtains the dress she wishes for, and agrees to pay so much a week
until the whole debt is cleared off. For instance, the dress costs
three pounds, a sum she can never hope to possess in its entirety.
Well, five shillings a week for three months will complete the sum
charged; and the woman by this system of accommodation is as much
benefited as the tallyman.
The British Queen, a concert-room in the Commercial Road, is a
respectable, well-conducted house, frequented by low prostitutes, as
may be expected, but orderly in the extreme, and what more can be
wished for? The sergeant remarked to me, if these places of harmless
amusement were not licensed and kept open, much evil would be sown
and disseminated throughout the neighbourhood, for it may be depended
something worse and ten times lower would be substituted. People of
all classes must have recreation. Sailors who come on shore after
a long cruise _will_ have it; and, added the sergeant, we give it
them in a way that does no harm to themselves or anybody else. Rows
and disturbances seldom occur, although, of course, they may be
expected now and then. The dancing-rooms close at twelve--indeed their
frequenters adjourn to other places generally before that hour, and
very few publics are open at one. I heard that there had been three
fights at the Prussian Eagle, in Ship Alley, Wellclose Square, on the
evening I visited the locality; but when I arrived I saw no symptoms of
the reported pugnacity of the people assembled, and this was the only
rumour of war that reached my ears.
Ship Alley is full of foreign lodging-houses. You see written on a
blind an inscription that denotes the nationality of the keeper and the
character of the establishment; for instance _Hollandsche lodgement_,
is sufficient to show a Dutchman that his own language is spoken, and
that he may have a bed if he chooses.
That there are desperate characters in the district was sufficiently
evidenced by what I saw when at the station-house. Two women, both
well-known prostitutes, were confined in the cells, one of whom had
been there before no less than _fourteen times_, and had only a few
hours before been brought up charged with nearly murdering a man with
a poker. Her face was bad, heavy, and repulsive; her forehead, as well
as I could distinguish by the scanty light thrown into the place by the
bulls-eye of the policeman, was low; her nose was short and what is
called pudgy, having the nostrils dilated; and she abused the police
for disturbing her when she wished to go to sleep, a thing, from what
I saw, I imagined rather difficult to accomplish, as she had nothing
to recline upon but a hard sort of locker attached to the wall, and
running all along one side and at the bottom of the cell.
The other woman, whose name was O’Brien, was much better looking than
her companion in crime; her hand was bandaged up, and she appeared
faint from loss of blood. The policeman lifted her head up, and asked
her if she would like anything to eat. She replied she could drink some
tea, which was ordered for her. She had met a man in a public-house
in the afternoon, who was occupied in eating some bread and cheese.
In order to get into conversation with him, she asked him to give her
some, and on his refusing she made a snatch at it, and caught hold of
the knife he was using with her right hand, inflicting a severe wound:
notwithstanding the pain of the wound, which only served to infuriate
her, she flew at the man with a stick and beat him severely over the
head, endangering his life; for which offence she was taken by the
police to the station-house and locked up.
There are very few English girls who can be properly termed sailors’
women; most of them are either German or Irish. I saw numbers of
German, tall brazen-faced women, dressed in gaudy colours, dancing and
pirouetting in a fantastic manner in a dancing-room in Ratcliff Highway.
It may be as well to give a description of one of the dancing-rooms
frequented by sailors and their women.
Passing through the bar of the public-house you ascend a flight of
stairs and find yourself in a long room well lighted by gas. There
are benches placed along the walls for the accommodation of the
dancers, and you will not fail to observe the orchestra, which is
well worthy of attention. It consists, in the majority of cases, of
four musicians, bearded shaggy-looking foreigners, probably Germans,
including a fiddle, a cornet, and two fifes or flutes. The orchestra
is usually penned up in a corner of the room, and placed upon a dais
or raised desk, to get upon which you ascend two steps; the front is
boarded up with deal, only leaving a small door at one end to admit the
performers, for whose convenience either a bench is erected or chairs
supplied. There is a little ledge to place the music on, which is as
often as not embellished with pewter pots. The music itself is striking
in the extreme, and at all events exhilarating in the highest degree.
The shrill notes of the fifes, and the braying of the trumpet in very
quick time, rouses the excitement of the dancers, until they whirl
round in the waltz with the greatest velocity.
I was much struck by the way in which the various dances were executed.
In the first place, the utmost decorum prevailed, nor did I notice the
slightest tendency to indecency. Polkas and waltzes seemed to be the
favourites, and the steps were marvellously well done, considering
the position and education of the company. In many cases there was
an exhibition of grace and natural ease that no one would have
supposed possible; but this was observable more amongst foreigners
than English. The generality of the women had not the slightest idea
of dancing. There was very little beauty abroad that night, at least
in the neighbourhood of Ratcliff Highway. It might have been hiding
under a bushel, but it was not patent to a casual observer. Yet I must
acknowledge there was something prepossessing about the countenances
of the women, which is more than could be said of the men. It might
have been a compound of resignation, indifference, and recklessness,
through all of which phases of her career a prostitute must go; nor is
she thoroughly inured to her vocation until they have been experienced,
and are in a manner mingled together. There was a certain innate
delicacy about those women, too, highly commendable to its possessors.
It was not the artificial refinement of the West-end, nothing of the
sort, but genuine womanly feeling. They did not look as if they had
come there for pleasure exactly, they appeared too business-like for
that; but they did seem as if they would like, and intended, to unite
the two, business and pleasure, and enjoy themselves as much as the
circumstances would allow. They do not dress in the dancing-room, they
attire themselves at home, and walk through the streets in their ball
costume, without their bonnets, but as they do not live far off this
is not thought much of. I remarked several women unattached sitting by
themselves, in one place as many as half-a-dozen.
The faces of the sailors were vacant, stupid, and beery. I could not
help thinking one man I saw at the Prussian Eagle a perfect Caliban
in his way. There was an expression of owlish cunning about his
heavy-looking features that, uniting with the drunken leer sitting on
his huge mouth, made him look but a “very indifferent monster.”
I noticed a sprinkling of coloured men and a few thorough negroes
scattered about here and there.
The sergeant chanced to be in search of a woman named Harrington, who
had committed a felony, and in the execution of his duty he was obliged
to search some notorious brothels that he thought might harbour the
delinquent.
We entered a house in Frederick Street (which is full of brothels,
almost every house being used for an immoral purpose). But the object
of our search was not there, and we proceeded to Brunswick Street, more
generally known in the neighbourhood and to the police as “Tiger Bay;”
the inhabitants and frequenters of which place are very often obliged
to enter an involuntary appearance in the Thames police court. Tiger
Bay, like Frederick Street, is full of brothels and thieves’ lodging
houses. We entered No. 6, accompanied by two policemen in uniform, who
happened to be on duty at the entrance to the place, as they wished
to apprehend a criminal whom they had reason to believe would resort
for shelter, after the night’s debauch, to one of the dens in the Bay.
We failed to find the man the police wanted, but on descending to the
kitchen, we discovered a woman sitting on a chair, evidently waiting up
for some one.
“That woman,” said the sergeant, “is one of the lowest class we have;
she is not only a common prostitute herself, and a companion of
ruffians and thieves, but the servant of prostitutes and low characters
as debased as herself, with the exception of their being waited upon by
her.”
We afterwards searched two houses on the opposite side of the way. The
rooms occupied by the women and their sailors were larger and more
roomy than I expected to find them. The beds were what are called
“fourposters,” and in some instances were surrounded with faded,
dirty-looking, chintz curtains. There was the usual amount of cheap
crockery on the mantel-pieces, which were surmounted with a small
looking-glass in a rosewood or gilt frame. When the magic word “Police”
was uttered, the door flew open, as the door of the robbers’ cave swung
back on its hinges when Ali Baba exclaimed “Sesame.” A few seconds were
allowed for the person who opened the door to retire to the couch, and
then our visual circuit of the chamber took place. The sailors did not
evince any signs of hostility at our somewhat unwarrantable intrusion,
and we in every case made our exit peacefully, but without finding
the felonious woman we were in search of; which might cause sceptical
people to regard her as slightly apocryphal, but in reality such was
not the case, and in all probability by this time justice has claimed
her own.
A glance at the interior of the Horse and Leaping Bar concluded our
nocturnal wanderings. This public-house is one of the latest in the
district, and holds out accommodation for man and beast till the small
hours multiply themselves considerably.
Most of the foreign women talk English pretty well, some excellently,
some of course imperfectly; their proficiency depending upon the length
of their stay in the country. A German woman told me the following
story:--
“I have been in England nearly six years. When I came over I could not
speak a word of your language, but I associated with my own countrymen.
Now I talk the English well, as well as any, and I go with the British
sailor. I am here to-night in this house of dancing with a sailor
English, and I have known him two week. His ship is in docks, and will
not sail for one month from this time I am now speaking. I knew him
before, one years ago and a half. He always lives with me when he come
on shore. He is nice man and give me all his money when he land always.
I take all his money while he with me, and not spend it quick as some
of your English women do. If I not to take care, he would spend all
in one week. Sailor boy always spend money like rain water; he throw
it into the street and not care to pick it up again, leave it for
crossing-sweeper or errand-boy who pass that way. I give him little
when he want it; he know me well and have great deal confidence in me.
I am honest, and he feel he can trust me. Suppose he have twenty-four
pound when he leave his ship, and he stay six week on land, he will
spend with me fifteen or twenty, and he will give me what left when he
leave me, and we amuse ourself and keep both ourself with the rest. It
very bad for sailor to keep his money himself; he will fall into bad
hands; he will go to ready-made outfitter or slop-seller, who will sell
him clothes dreadful dear and ruin him. I know very many sailors--six,
eight, ten, oh! more than that. They are my husbands. I am not married,
of course not, but they think me their wife while they are on shore.
I do not care much for any of them; I have a lover of my own, he is
waiter in a lodging and coffee house; Germans keep it; he is German and
he comes from Berlin, which is my town also. I is born there.”
Shadwell, Spitalfields, and contiguous districts are infested with
nests of brothels as well as Whitechapel. To attract sailors, women and
music must be provided for their amusement. In High Street, Shadwell,
there are many of these houses, one of the most notorious of which is
called The White Swan, or, more commonly, Paddy’s Goose; the owner of
which is reported to make money in more ways than one. Brothel-keeping
is a favourite mode of investing money in this neighbourhood. Some
few years ago a man called James was prosecuted for having altogether
thirty brothels; and although he was convicted, the nuisance was by no
means in the slightest degree abated, as the informer, by name Brooks,
has them all himself at the present time.
There are two other well-known houses in High Street, Shadwell--The
Three Crowns, and The Grapes, the latter not being licensed for dancing.
Paddy’s Goose is perhaps the most popular house in the parish. It is
also very well thought of in high quarters. During the Crimean war,
the landlord, when the Government wanted sailors to man the fleet,
went among the shipping in the river, and enlisted numbers of men. His
system of recruiting was very successful. He went about in a small
steamer with a band of music and flags, streamers and colours flying.
All this rendered him popular with the Admiralty authorities, and made
his house extensively known to the sailors, and those connected with
them.
Inspector Price, under whose supervision the low lodging-houses in
that part of London are placed, most obligingly took me over one of
the lowest lodging-houses, and one of the best, forming a strange
contrast, and both presenting an admirable example of the capital
working of the most excellent Act that regulates them. We went into
a large room, with a huge fire blazing cheerily at the furthest
extremity, around which were grouped some ten or twelve people, others
were scattered over various parts of the room. The attitudes of most
were listless; none seemed to be reading; one was cooking his supper;
a few amused themselves by criticising us, and canvassing as to the
motives of our visit, and our appearance altogether. The inspector was
well known to the keeper of the place, who treated him with the utmost
civility and respect. The greatest cleanliness prevailed everywhere.
Any one was admitted to this house who could command the moderate
sum of threepence. I was informed those who frequented it were, for
the most part, prostitutes and thieves. That is thieves and their
associates. No questions were asked of those who paid their money
and claimed a night’s lodging in return. The establishment contained
forty beds. There were two floors. The first was divided into little
boxes by means of deal boards, and set apart for married people, or
those who represented themselves to be so. Of course, as the sum paid
for the night’s lodging was so small, the lodgers could not expect
clean sheets, which were only supplied once a week. The sheets were
indeed generally black, or very dirty. How could it be otherwise? The
men were often in a filthy state, and quite unaccustomed to anything
like cleanliness, from which they were as far as from godliness. The
floors and the surroundings were clean, and highly creditable to the
management upstairs; the beds were not crowded together, but spread
over the surface in rows, being a certain distance from one another.
Many of them were already occupied, although it was not eleven o’clock,
and the house is generally full before morning. The ventilation was
very complete, and worthy of attention. There were several ventilators
on each side of the room, but not in the roof--all were placed in the
side.
The next house we entered was more aristocratic in appearance. You
entered through some glass doors, and going along a small passage
found yourself in a large apartment, long and narrow, resembling a
coffee-room. The price of admission was precisely the same, but the
frequenters were chiefly working men, sometimes men from the docks,
respectable mechanics, &c. No suspicious characters were admitted by
the proprietor on any pretence, and he by this means kept his house
select. Several men were seated in the compartments reading newspapers,
of which there appeared to be an abundance. The accommodation was very
good, and everything reflected great credit upon the police, who seem
to have the most unlimited jurisdiction, and complete control over the
low people and places in the East-end of London.
Bluegate fields is nothing more or less than a den of thieves,
prostitutes, and ruffians of the lowest description. Yet the police
penetrate unarmed without the slightest trepidation. There I witnessed
sights that the most morbid novelist has described, but which have been
too horrible for those who have never been on the spot to believe. We
entered a house in Victoria Place, running out of Bluegate, that had
no street-door, and penetrating a small passage found ourselves in a
kitchen, where the landlady was sitting over a miserable coke fire;
near her there was a girl, haggard and woe-begone. We put the usual
question, Is there any one upstairs? And on being told that the rooms
were occupied, we ascended to the first floor, which was divided into
four small rooms. The house was only a two-storied one. The woman of
the place informed me, she paid five shillings a-week rent, and charged
the prostitutes who lodged with her four shillings a-week for the
miserable apartments she had to offer for their accommodation; but as
the shipping in the river was very slack just now, times were hard with
her.
The house was a wretched tumble-down hovel, and the poor woman
complained bitterly that her landlord would make no repairs. The
first room we entered contained a Lascar, who had come over in some
vessel, and his woman. There was a sickly smell in the chamber, that
I discovered proceeded from the opium he had been smoking. There was
not a chair to be seen; nothing but a table, upon which were placed a
few odds-and-ends. The Lascar was lying on a palliasse placed upon the
floor (there was no bedstead), apparently stupefied from the effects
of the opium he had been taking. A couple of old tattered blankets
sufficed to cover him. By his bedside sat his woman, who was half
idiotically endeavouring to derive some stupefaction from the ashes
he had left in his pipe. Her face was grimy and unwashed, and her
hands so black and filthy that mustard-and-cress might have been sown
successfully upon them. As she was huddled up with her back against
the wall she appeared an animated bundle of rags. She was apparently a
powerfully made woman, and although her face was wrinkled and careworn,
she did not look exactly decrepit, but more like one thoroughly broken
down in spirit than in body. In all probability she was diseased;
and the disease communicated by the Malays, Lascars, and Orientals
generally, is said to be the most frightful form of lues to be met
with in Europe. It goes by the name of the Dry ----, and is much
dreaded by all the women in the neighbourhood of the docks. Leaving
this wretched couple, who were too much overcome with the fumes of
opium to answer any questions, we went into another room, which should
more correctly be called a hole. There was not an atom of furniture in
it, nor a bed, and yet it contained a woman. This woman was lying on
the floor, with not even a bundle of straw beneath her, wrapped up in
what appeared to be a shawl, but which might have been taken for the
dress of a scarecrow feloniously abstracted from a corn-field, without
any very great stretch of the imagination. She started up as we kicked
open the door that was loose on its hinges, and did not shut properly,
creaking strangely on its rusty hinges as it swung sullenly back.
Her face was shrivelled and famine-stricken, her eyes bloodshot and
glaring, her features disfigured slightly with disease, and her hair
dishevelled, tangled, and matted. More like a beast in his lair than
a human being in her home was this woman. We spoke to her, and from
her replies concluded she was an Irishwoman. She said she was charged
nothing for the place she slept in. She cleaned out the water-closets
in the daytime, and for these services she was given a lodging gratis.
The next house we entered was in Bluegate Fields itself. Four women
occupied the kitchen on the ground-floor. They were waiting for their
men, probably thieves. They had a can of beer, which they passed from
one to the other. The woman of the house had gone out to meet her
husband, who was to be liberated from prison that night, having been
imprisoned for a burglary three years ago, his term of incarceration
happening to end that day. His friends were to meet at his house and
celebrate his return by an orgie, when all of them, we were told, hoped
to be blind drunk; and, added the girl who volunteered the information,
“None of ’em didn’t care dam for police.” She was evidently
anticipating the happy state of inebriety she had just been predicting.