What would census returns be most useful for?

Finding out who lived in each house, their jobs and where they were born

What did Charles Booth's maps show?

The level of wealth or poverty in each street, shown by colour

Why must newspaper reports of the Ripper murders be used carefully?

Many were sensational and printed rumours to sell copies

Whitechapel: sources and following up an enquiry

Paper 1 Section A asks how useful sources about Whitechapel are, and how you would follow one up. That means knowing which national and local records exist and what each can and cannot tell you.

GCSE · 1HI0
About 16 minutes

Practise this lesson free (6 questions)

National and local sources

Census returns (every ten years, for example 1881 and 1891): who lived in each house, their ages, jobs and where they were born. Good for showing overcrowding and migration.
Charles Booth's poverty maps (published from 1889): every street coloured by the wealth of its people, from black for the poorest to yellow for the wealthiest.
Police records (Metropolitan Police reports, H Division), coroners' inquests and Old Bailey trial records.
Workhouse records, local newspapers and illustrated papers, and Punch cartoons, which mocked the police during the Ripper murders.

Strengths and weaknesses

Every source is useful for some enquiries and less useful for others.
Census: detailed and official, but it records one night every ten years, and lodging-house residents who moved often were easily missed.
Booth's maps: cover every street, but Booth's researchers judged 'class' by their own standards.
Newspapers: quick and detailed, but often sensational, written to sell copies; they printed rumours during the Ripper case.
Police reports: written by people with direct knowledge, but officers might play down their own failures.

A report by a police inspector of H Division, written in October 1888: 'The streets around Flower and Dean Street are crowded with common lodging houses, where as many as 80 people may sleep in one house. Most change their lodging every few nights, and many give false names. My constables find it almost impossible to trace anyone.'

Practice source, written for GCSE-ready (not a real historical document)

Following up a source

Question 2(b) gives you four boxes to fill in:
1. Detail in the source that I would follow up.
2. Question I would ask.
3. What type of source I could use.
4. How this might help answer my question.
Keep all four boxes linked to the same detail, and name a specific source type, such as 'the 1891 census for Flower and Dean Street', not just 'the internet'.

Worked example

Following up the police inspector's report: complete the four boxes.

Detail: 'as many as 80 people may sleep in one house'.
Question: how many people actually lived in the lodging houses on Flower and Dean Street?
Source type: the 1891 census returns for Flower and Dean Street.
How it helps: the census lists everyone in each building on census night, so I could count residents and see whether the inspector exaggerated.

Answer: A detail, a linked question, a named source (the 1891 census) and an explanation of how it answers the question.

Key idea

Know the key sources: census returns (1881, 1891), Booth's poverty maps (from 1889), police and coroners' records, Old Bailey records, workhouse records, newspapers and Punch cartoons. Judge each for a particular enquiry. To follow up a source: detail, question, type of source, how it helps, all linked.

Quick check

Try two quick questions

See if it has sunk in. Answers are marked straight away.

Extra practice

2 more questions

Try each one, then tap to check.

How often was the census taken in Victorian Britain?
1. Every year
2. Every fifty years
3. Every ten years
4. Only once
Show the answer
Answer: Every ten years
It recorded everyone in a household on census night.
What colour marked the poorest streets on Booth's maps?
1. Black
2. Yellow
3. Red
4. Blue
Show the answer
Answer: Black
Booth called the black streets 'vicious, semi-criminal'.

Check you have got it

Answer 6 quick questions with instant marking. If you get one wrong, GCSE-ready shows you why and gives you another go. It is free, and you do not need an account.

Practise this lesson free (6 questions)All GCSE and International GCSE History lessons

Video for this lesson coming soon. Subscribe on YouTube

Sources and references

Checked by the GCSE-ready editorial team, 17 October 2026. Last updated 2 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.