Whitechapel: open all night?

[JennyL]

In reading about the case lately I'd noticed something in the various witness statements that surprised me. I mentioned it to a friend who has concurrently reactivated a dormant interest in the 1888 murders, and he'd marked it too--the fact that seemingly every pub and costermonger was up selling at all hours of the night to the denizens of Whitechapel.

I realize that a market like Spitalfields would require preparation for business in the wee hours, but isn't there a mention of someone buying fruit from a man at the front ataout or after one am? Was he(or whoever was selling) just hanging out at that hour, in case a person or two ambled by-on a rainy night, when the profit couldn't have been worth the loss of sleep? Or did shopkeepers just roll out of bed if someone rang?

Not to mention the women continually going back out to grab a beer at three am, or 5:30, so I gather that pubs were legally allowed to be operated 24/7. Is that right? That kind of shocks me as the England I first knew(not to mention here in the US) had strict "Sunday laws", as well as very short business hours on most other days and here in Los Angeles, at least, to avoid continual partying bars are required to close from 2am till 6. Not so in Victorian London?!

I can understand prostitutes being up and about in the early hours, but what about the other tradesmen and sellers? When on earth did any of them sleep? Was it normal for all parts of the London or were the "open all night" hours for the slums only?

[Archaic]

LVP Kwiki-Marts

Hi, JennyL & welcome to Casebook! (I'm still a newbie myself.)

Isn't it amazing that the proverbial Kwiki-Mart we all know and love isn't really a modern invention? It probably goes back to Caveman times!

Actually, then as now, people bent the rules. Many of the shops & the costermongers in Whitechapel seemed to keep selling late at night until their customers stopped coming; then they went to bed & started again early next morning. For those barely making a living, ANY profit might have been ''worth going without sleep.''
Apparently some of the lodging houses even made a bit of extra cash through the sale of illicit alcohol- not 'top shelf', I imagine.
In the Witness Testimony regarding Mary Kelly, there's talk of women in Miller's Court stumbling into the local Pub in the early morning for a To-Go Order of their favorite breakfast booze.

*You might enjoy listening to the 'Dorset Street' Podcast; it's quite interesting & really conveys the atmosphere of Whitechapel. -Best regards, Archaic

[Limehouse]

I believe that the licensing hours became strict during the First World War and remained so until gradual relaxing in the 1980s and more recently. In my younger days (1970s) you could only drink in a pub until 10.30pm on most week nights and a bit later on Fridays and Saturdays (11pm?). Sunday night closing was 10pm I think. Publicans could apply for an extension (say on New Years Eve) but only a certain number were allowed per year per pub.

Also in the 1970s, when I had reason to visit the old Covent Garden Market (before it moved to Nine Elms) at 3am, pubs and cafes nearby were open to serve the porters, buyers and other market visitors. However, these pubs were not usually open in the evenings like other pubs.

I believe that in the east end of London during the LVP many trades kept unsociable hours. Slaughter houses worked at night, the docks opened very early in the summer months, independent traders and craftmen (such as Tailors) worked as long as they needed to complete orders when business was brisk and there would have been plenty of business for pubs and traders from people going to and from work and from people who had no regular work and would venture out at night because they could slumber during the day.