<P> One madame described as' the great bawd of the seamen' by Samuel Pepys was Damaris Page . Born in Stepney in approximately 1610, she had moved from prostitution to running brothels, including one on the Highway that catered for ordinary seaman and a further establishment nearby that catered for the more expensive tastes amongst the officers and gentry . She died wealthy, in 1669, in a house on the Highway, despite charges being brought against her and time spent in Newgate Prison . </P> <P> By the 19th century, an attitude of toleration had changed, and the social reformer William Acton described the riverside prostitutes as a' horde of human tigresses who swarm the pestilent dens by the riverside at Ratcliffe and Shadwell' . The Society for the Suppression of Vice estimated that between the Houndsditch, Whitechapel and Ratcliffe areas there were 1803 prostitutes; and between Mile End, Shadwell and Blackwall 963 women in the trade . They were often victims of circumstance, there being no welfare state and a high mortality rate amongst the inhabitants that left wives and daughters destitute, with no other means of income . </P> <P> At the same time, religious reformers began to introduce' Seamans' Missions' throughout the dock areas that sought both to provide for seafarer's physical needs and to keep them away from the temptations of drink and women . Eventually, the passage of the Contagious Diseases Prevention Act in 1864 allowed policemen to arrest prostitutes and detain them in hospital . The act was repealed in 1886, after agitation by early feminists, such as Josephine Butler and Elizabeth Wolstenholme, led to the formation of the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts . </P> <P> Notable crimes in the area include the Ratcliff Highway murders (1813); the killings committed by the London Burkers (apparently inspired by Burke and Hare) in Bethnal Green (1831); the notorious serial killings of prostitutes by Jack the Ripper (1888); and the Siege of Sidney Street (1911) (in which anarchists, inspired by the legendary Peter the Painter, took on Home Secretary Winston Churchill, and the army). </P>

Why did england feel vulnerable to attack at the end of the 19th century