Tower Hamlets | |
---|---|
Motto: From Great Things to Greater | |
Coordinates: 51°31′N 0°03′W / 51.517°N 0.050°W | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Constituent country | England |
Region | London |
Ceremonial county | Greater London |
Created | 1 April 1965 |
Admin HQ | 160 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1BJ |
Government | |
• Type | London borough council |
• Body | Tower Hamlets London Borough Council |
• London Assembly | Unmesh Desai (Labour) AM for City and East |
• MPs | Rushanara Ali (Labour) Apsana Begum (Labour) |
Area | |
• Total | 7.63 sq mi (19.77 km2) |
• Rank | 290th (of 296) |
Population (2022) | |
• Total | 325,789 |
• Rank | 37th (of 296) |
• Density | 43,000/sq mi (16,000/km2) |
Time zone | UTC (GMT) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+1 (BST) |
Postcodes | |
ISO 3166 code | GB-TWH |
ONS code | 00BG |
GSS code | E09000030 |
Police | Metropolitan Police |
Website | www |
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a borough in London, England. Situated on the north bank of the River Thames and immediately east of the City of London, the borough spans much of the traditional East End of London and includes much of the regenerated London Docklands area. The 2019 mid-year population for the borough is estimated at 324,745.
Some of the tallest buildings in London occupy Canary Wharf, one of the country's largest financial districts, in the south of the borough. A part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is in Tower Hamlets. It was formed in 1965 by merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally an alternative name for the historic Tower Division; the area of south-east Middlesex, focused on (but not limited to) the area of the modern borough, which owed military service to the Tower of London.
The local authority is Tower Hamlets London Borough Council. In 2017, a joint study by Trust for London and New Policy Institute found Tower Hamlets to be the 2nd most deprived London borough (after Barking and Dagenham) based on an average calculated across a range of indicators; with high rates of poverty, child poverty, unemployment and pay inequality compared to other London boroughs.[1] However, it has the lowest gap for educational outcomes at secondary level.[2]
Tower Hamlets is the first London borough in which the earlierst skyscrapers were built and since 2014 it saw the completion of 71 skyscrapers, more than any other place in the country. [3]
Demographically, Tower Hamlets has a large population of British Bangladeshis, forming the largest single ethnic group in the borough at 32%.[4] The 2011 census showed Tower Hamlets to have the highest proportion of Muslims of any English local authority and was the only location where Muslims outnumbered Christians.[5] The borough has more than 40 mosques, Islamic centres and madrasahs,[6] including the East London Mosque, Britain's largest.[7] Whitechapel and Brick Lane's restaurants, neighbouring street market and shops provide the largest range of Bangladeshi cuisine, woodwork, carpets and clothes in Europe.[8][9] The Lane is also a major centre of hipster subculture.[10][11][12]
As one of the few mosques in Britain permitted to broadcast calls to prayer (azan), the mosque soon found itself at the centre of a public debate about "noise pollution" when local non-Muslim residents began to protest.