London Borough of Tower Hamlets

"Tower Hamlets" redirects here. For the historic liberty, see Tower division. For other uses, see Tower Hamlets (disambiguation).

Tower Hamlets
London borough
Coat of arms of Tower Hamlets
Coat of arms
Official logo of Tower Hamlets
Council logo
Motto: 
From Great Things to Greater
Tower Hamlets shown within Greater London
Tower Hamlets shown within Greater London
Coordinates: 51°31′N 0°03′W / 51.517°N 0.050°W / 51.517; -0.050
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Constituent countryEngland
RegionLondon
Ceremonial countyGreater London
Created1 April 1965
Admin HQ160 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1BJ
Government
 • TypeLondon borough council
 • BodyTower Hamlets London Borough Council
 • London AssemblyUnmesh Desai (Labour) AM for City and East
 • MPsRushanara Ali (Labour)
Apsana Begum (Labour)
Area
 • Total
7.63 sq mi (19.77 km2)
 • Rank290th (of 296)
Population
 (2022)
 • Total
325,789
 • Rank37th (of 296)
 • Density43,000/sq mi (16,000/km2)
Time zoneUTC (GMT)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+1 (BST)
Postcodes
E, EC
ISO 3166 codeGB-TWH
ONS code00BG
GSS codeE09000030
PoliceMetropolitan Police
Websitewww.towerhamlets.gov.uk Edit this at Wikidata

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 earliest 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]

  1. ^ "London's Poverty Profile 2017 report (page 18)". Trust for London. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  2. ^ "London's Poverty Profile". Trust for London. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  3. ^ https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1969098/uk-city-dubbed-manhattan-600-skyscrapers/amp
  4. ^ "Borough Profile 2020". towerhamlets.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  5. ^ "Religion in Tower Hamlets, 2011 Census Update" (PDF). towerhamlets.gov.uk. February 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 August 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  6. ^ "Bangla Stories". banglastories.org.
  7. ^ Eade, John (1996). "Nationalism, Community, and the Islamisation of Space in London". In Metcalf, Barbara Daly (ed.). Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520204042. Retrieved 19 April 2015. 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.
  8. ^ Garbin, David. "Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK: some observations on socio-cultural dynamics, religious trends and transnational politics" Archived 4 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Conference Human Rights and Bangladesh, School of African and Oriental Studies, June 2005, p. 1. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  9. ^ Tower Hamlets Council Corporate Research Unit, Religion in Tower Hamlets 2011 Census: Key Facts (Briefing 2013-03) Archived 5 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Hubbard, Phil (2016). "Hipsters on Our High Streets: Consuming the Gentrification Frontier". Sociological Research Online. 21 (3): 1. doi:10.5153/sro.3962. S2CID 53381825.
  11. ^ "Framing Banglatown - Arts & Entertainment".
  12. ^ "Tourist favour hipster East End over central London, Airbnb reveals". 21 August 2018.