The main map shows all of the buildings in Whitechapel in 2016, outlined in orange. If we have information about a building (including images, audio or video), the outline is filled in. Hovering over a building shows its address in the top-left hand corner of the screen; clicking on it zooms in and shows a card with a photo, a description, and the option to go through to a ‘detail’ page with more information about the building.
This is the place to contribute your own information, images, video or audio about the building. Information about demolished buildings can be placed on the sites they once occupied.
Use the controls in the bottom left-hand corner to zoom in and out, turn the building outlines on and off, and swap the modern map of Whitechapel with historic maps of the area.
The information panel in the top left-hand corner of the screen shows whether all of the buildings are being displayed – sometimes you will have asked to see just the buildings linked to a particular search term, category, or tag.
The search box in the menu bar allows you to search the map for a specific place. When you click the ‘Go’ button, the map will update and show all the buildings connected to your search on the map, either outlined in orange if we don’t have information about them, or coloured in if we do.
To show all the buildings, click the ‘show all’ link in the information panel in the top left-hand corner.
Lots of the buildings have been put into categories, so you can look at a particular topic if you want to. You can display all of the buildings in a category by choosing from the ‘Explore Whitechapel’ links at the bottom of the home page. You can also see these categories in the ‘Categories’ links on the right hand side of a building’s ‘detail’ page.
Many buildings will have been tagged with relevant topics, such as individual people or industries. You can click on the links under the ‘Tags’ heading on a building’s detail page to show on the map others places sharing this topic.
Beneath the title of every contribution on the site is the user name of the person who submitted it. Click this to see all of that person’s contributions and the buildings they have added to.