Facts about Tower Hamlets
Tower Hamlets History
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets forms the core of the East End. It lies east of the ancient walled City of London and north of the River Thames. The use of the term “East End” in a pejorative sense began in the late 19th century, as the expansion of the population of London led to extreme overcrowding throughout the area and a concentration of poor people and immigrants in the districts that made it up.
Originally it was an area characterized by villages clustered around the City walls or along the main roads, surrounded by farmland, with marshes and small communities by the River, serving the needs of shipping and the Royal Navy. Until the arrival of formal docks, shipping was required to land goods in the Pool of London, but industries related to construction, repair, and victualling of ships flourished in the area from Tudor times.
General Info
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough located in East London; it covers much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. The new authority’s unusual name was taken from an alternative title for the Tower Division; the area of south-east Middlesex, focused on the area of the modern borough, which owed military service to the Tower of London.
Many of the tallest buildings in London occupy the center of the Isle of Dogs in the south of the borough. A part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is in Tower Hamlets. The borough has a population of 272,890, which includes one of the highest Muslim populations in the country and has an established British Bangladeshi business and residential community.
