GCSE Revision

Exam skills: the historic environment

The historic environment questions

Whitechapel is Paper 1, Section A. It's worth 16 marks.

QuestionMarksAOTime
1(a) Describe one feature of…2AO1about 3 minutes
1(b) Describe one feature of…2AO1about 3 minutes
2(a) How useful are Sources A and B for an enquiry into…?8AO3about 12 minutes
2(b) How could you follow up Source A to find out more about…?4AO3about 6 minutes

AO3 is about analysing and evaluating sources from the time.

Key terms

The sources for the model answer

Enquiry: How useful are Sources A and B for an enquiry into attitudes to crime and policing in Whitechapel in the late 1880s?

Source A
A cartoon by John Tenniel in Punch, a popular magazine of humour and politics, published on 22 September 1888, during the Whitechapel murders.
A cartoon. In a dark street, a police constable in uniform wears a blindfold and gropes with his arms stretched out. Around him, four rough-looking men laugh and dodge out of his reach. On the wall behind is a poster headed 'Murder'.
BLIND-MAN'S BUFF.
(As played by the Police.)
"TURN ROUND THREE TIMES,
AND CATCH WHOM YOU MAY!"
Public domain: dedicated to the public domain (CC0) by the British Library. Where this image is from
Source B
From Labour and Life of the People, Volume I: East London (1889), a survey of poverty in East London led by the businessman and social researcher Charles Booth. Here Booth describes Whitechapel.
The feeling that I have just described—this excitement of life which can accept murder as a dramatic incident, and drunkenness as the buffoonery of the stage—is especially characteristic of Whitechapel. And looked at in this way, what a drama it is! Whitechapel is a veritable Tom Tiddler's ground, the Eldorado of the East, a gathering together of poor fortune seekers; its streets are full of buying and selling, the poor living on the poor.

('Tom Tiddler's ground' and 'Eldorado' both mean a place where people hope to find money easily; 'buffoonery' means clowning.)

Key terms

Model answer: usefulness (8 marks)

Method: for each source, judge its usefulness using its , its , and your .

Model answer: Source A is useful because it shows that many people thought the police were failing to catch criminals. Its provenance makes it useful for attitudes: Punch was a popular magazine, so it reflects what many readers thought. I know the police were widely criticised in the press in September 1888, when no one had been caught for the murders. However, it is a cartoon meant to make readers laugh, so it exaggerates.

Source B is useful because Booth suggests that people in Whitechapel were used to crime. Booth researched poverty carefully, but he was an outsider, so this is his impression, not the residents' view.

Key terms

Model answer: follow-up (4 marks)

Method: complete four steps: a detail in the source, a question about it, a type of source that could answer it, and how it would help.

Question: How could you follow up Source B to find out more about crime in Whitechapel?

Model answer:

  • Detail I would follow up: Booth says people in Whitechapel could 'accept murder as a dramatic incident'.
  • Question I would ask: How common were violent crimes in Whitechapel in the 1880s?
  • Type of source: H Division's police records of crimes reported.
  • How this might help: they would show how many violent crimes were actually reported, so I could see whether Booth's impression was accurate.

Common mistake

The type of source you choose must be able to answer your question. Police records can show how many crimes were reported; they could not show how residents felt about the police.

Key terms