Misplaced Pages

#208791

111-655: The Boundary Estate is a housing development in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets , in the East End of London . The estate, constructed from 1890, was one of the earliest social housing schemes built by a local government authority. It was built on the site of the demolished Friars Mount rookery in the Old Nichol , with works begun by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1893 and completed by

222-481: A London mason, Jon Richardson, with permission to dig for bricks. The land became built up piecemeal with houses, built by a number of sub-lessees. Many of the streets were named after Nichol, and by 1827 the 5-acre (2.0 ha) estate consisted of 237 houses. Henry Mayhew visited Bethnal Green in 1850, and noted for The Morning Chronicle the trades in the area: tailors, costermongers , shoemakers, dustmen, sawyers, carpenters, cabinet makers and silkweavers. In

333-648: A 2024 film, Blitz , about the wartime bombing of London ( the Blitz ), depicting and partly inspired by this event. Bethnal Green tube station opened on 4 December 1946 on the Central line and is between Liverpool Street and Mile End on the London Underground , however construction of the Central line's eastern extension into then- Essex was started in the 1930s, and the tunnels were largely complete at

444-557: A Metropolitan Borough in 1900, which merged with some of the neighbouring areas, to become the new London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in 1965. The area was part of the historic (or ancient) county of Middlesex , but military and most (or all) civil county functions were managed more locally, by the Tower Division (also known as the Tower Hamlets) . The role of the Tower Division ended when Bethnal Green became part of

555-595: A Parish, then a Metropolitan Borough before merging with neighbouring areas to become the north-western part of the new Tower Hamlets. Economic focus shifted from mainstream farming produce for the City of London – through highly perishable goods production ( market gardening ), weaving, dock and building work and light industry – to a high proportion of commuters to city businesses, public sector/care sector roles, construction, courier businesses and home-working digital and creative industries. Identifiable slums in

666-675: A Sunday flower market. Bethnal Green Junction , now just Bethnal Green from 1946 (which leads to confusion with the much-later London Underground station) and Cambridge Heath railway station are on the London Overground . Both were opened by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) on the Lea Valley Lines in 1872 as part of a more direct route to Enfield Town . The GER opened further Fast Lines that allow longer-distance trains to bypass these. Bethnal Green

777-451: A baby tripping on the stairs. A new anti-aircraft rocket being test-fired in nearby Victoria Park caused panic, being thought to be a German weapon. The panic began at 8:27. In the wet, dark conditions, a woman tripped on the crowded stairs, causing many others to fall. Within a few seconds 300 people were crushed in the narrow stairwell, causing the deaths of 173 people, mostly women and 62 children, who were crushed and asphyxiated. A report

888-515: A decline in work in the docks, and the closure of many traditional industries. The Abercrombie Plan for London (1944) began an exodus from London towards the new towns . This decline began to reverse with the establishment of the London Docklands Development Corporation bringing new industries and housing to the brownfield sites along the river. Also contributing was new immigration from Asia beginning in

999-561: A flow of people down the narrow staircase, with no handrail, of the uncompleted Bethnal Green tube station , wet from rain and only dimly lit due to blackout precautions, to shelter from bombs. (The station had been requisitioned in 1940 by the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green under the supervision of the Regional Commissioners.) A crowd crush ensued, thought to have been triggered by a woman carrying

1110-579: A large population of British Bangladeshis , forming the largest single ethnic group in the borough at 32%. 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 . The borough has more than 40 mosques, Islamic centres and madrasahs , including the East London Mosque , Britain's largest. Whitechapel and Brick Lane 's restaurants, neighbouring street market and shops provide

1221-459: A major local shopping area. In the 19th century, Bethnal Green remained characterised by its market gardens and by weaving. Having been an area of large houses and gardens as late as the 18th century, by about 1860 Bethnal Green was mainly full of tumbledown old buildings with many families living in each house. By the end of the century, Bethnal Green was one of the poorest slums in London. Jack

SECTION 10

#1732773266209

1332-439: A range of indicators; with high rates of poverty, child poverty , unemployment and pay inequality compared to other London boroughs. However, it has the lowest gap for educational outcomes at secondary level. 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. Demographically, Tower Hamlets has

1443-651: A religion and 6.9% did not state their religious views. The following table shows the religious identity of residents residing in Tower Hamlets according to the 2001, 2011 and the 2021 censuses. There are 21 active churches, affiliated with the Church of England , which include Christ Church of Spitalfields , St Paul's Church of Shadwell and St Dunstan's of Stepney ; and there are also churches of many other Christian denominations. There are more than 40 mosques and Islamic centres in Tower Hamlets. The most famous

1554-465: A short time at the Queen's Arms inn at Romford . There, her beauty quickly attracts four suitors, three of whom lose interest when she declares her background, while the fourth, a knight is unconcerned by her father's status. The couple marry, and despite his seeming poverty, the beggar gives a huge dowry to the knight, to the bitter dismay of the other three suitors. The Blind Beggar public house, just on

1665-509: A top-end estate agency recommends that 'extreme luxury' and ultra-modern residential properties are to be found at Canary Riverside, West India Quay, Pan Peninsula and Neo Bankside. Tower Hamlets is the earliest borough where the first skyscrapers were built and since 2014 it saw the completion of over seventy skyscrapers, more than any other place in the UK The End Child Poverty coalition published that Tower Hamlets has

1776-509: A total of 2,221 civilians were killed and 7,472 were injured, with 46,482 houses destroyed and 47,574 damaged. This led to some dispersal of the population to outlying suburbs. New housing was built in the 1950s for those that remained. The closure of the last of the East End docks in the Port of London in 1980 created further challenges and led to attempts at regeneration and the formation of

1887-528: A towpath to interrupt development, giving direct access to the canal. A row of Victorian workshops was built on Wadeson Street in what was a historically Jewish precinct. This became very overcrowded with 572 inhabitants living in 125 houses by the 1930s. During the Second World War, the Luftwaffe began The Blitz on 7 September 1940. Bethnal Green was in "Target Area A" along with the rest of

1998-574: A trust under which it was to be kept open and rent from it used for the benefit of poor people living in the vicinity. From that date, the trust has administered the land and its minute books are kept in the London Metropolitan Archives . Bethnal House, or Kirby's Castle, was the principal house on the Green. One of its owners was Sir Hugh Platt (1552–1608), author of books on gardening and practical science. Under its next owner it

2109-575: Is an area in London , England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets . It is in east London and part of the East End . The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green , much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By the 16th century the term applied to a wider rural area, the Hamlet of Bethnal Green , which subsequently became

2220-430: Is curious as before 1893, there was no intersection or feature here. One of the roads that link into the circus is the northern end of Club Row, a part of Brick Lane market, well known as an animal market until this activity was closed down in 1983. The flats remain and are Grade II listed , together with the bandstand. In their day, they were revolutionary in their provision of facilities for residents. Today, despite

2331-642: Is in East London, north of the River Thames . The City of London lies to the west, the London Borough of Hackney to the north, while the River Lea forms the boundary with the London Borough of Newham to the east. The River Lea also forms the boundary between the historic counties of Middlesex and Essex . The borough's Thames frontage extends from the Tower Dock inlet, immediately west of

SECTION 20

#1732773266209

2442-443: Is now a community arts facility. The nearest London Overground station, Shoreditch High Street railway station , opened on 4 April 2010. London Borough of Tower Hamlets 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

2553-943: Is the East London Mosque , one of the first mosques in Britain allowed to broadcast the adhan , and one of the biggest Islamic centres in Europe . The Maryam Centre, a part of the mosque, is the biggest Islamic centre for women in Europe. Opened in 2013, it features a main prayer hall, ameliorated funeral services, education facilities, a fitness centre and support services. The East London Mosque has been visited by several notable people, including Prince Charles , Boris Johnson , many foreign government officials and world-renowned imams and Muslim scholars. Other notable mosques are Brick Lane Mosque , Darul Ummah Masjid, Esha Atul Islam Mosque, Markazi Masjid, Stepney Shahjalal Mosque and Poplar Central Mosque. Other notable religious buildings include

2664-779: The Church of England . After examining the text of the sermon, the Bishop of London condemned it as containing "erroneous and dangerous notions". As a result, the bishop sent Woodard to be a curate in Clapton . Globe Town was established from 1800 to provide for the expanding population of weavers around Bethnal Green attracted by improving prospects in silk weaving. The population of Bethnal Green trebled between 1801 and 1831, operating 20,000 looms in their own homes. By 1824, with restrictions on importation of French silks relaxed, up to half these looms became idle and prices were driven down. With many importing warehouses already established in

2775-540: The City and East seat in the London Assembly is held by the Labour Party member, Unmesh Desai . The area of Bethnal Green covers roughly three wards of Tower Hamlets; Bethnal Green represented by Councillors Mohammed Ahbab Hossain, Sirajul Islam (who is Statutory Deputy Mayor for Housing under Mayor of Tower Hamlets and Eve McQuillan; St Peter's (which takes its name from the ecclesiastical parish of

2886-683: The Cranbrook Estate in Bethnal Green. Bethnal Green is famous for its mulberry trees, most notably the Bethnal Green mulberry at the site of the former London Chest Hospital, which is reputed to be the oldest tree in the East End. Many of these mulberry trees may be a legacy of unsuccessful 16th and 17th century attempts to boost the weaving industries that Bethnal Green, Shoreditch , Spitalfields and other East End districts relied upon so heavily. Mulberries were used as

2997-401: The East End of London . Bethnal Green Library was bombed on the very first night of the Blitz. This forced the temporary relocation of the library into the unopened Bethnal Green Underground Station in order to provide continuity of lending services. The library was rebuilt and opened a few months later for the public. Oxford House also had a major role, with some local residents fleeing into

3108-789: The Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue , the Congregation of Jacob Synagogue, the London Buddhist Centre , the Hindu Pragati Sangha Temple, and the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat. The Great Synagogue of London , which was destroyed during the Second World War, is located just outside the borough's boundaries, in the City . The borough hosts the world headquarters of many global financial businesses, employing some of

3219-628: The Hertford Union Canal leads from the Regent's canal, at a basin in the north of Mile End , to join the River Lea at Old Ford . A further canal, Limehouse Cut , London's oldest, leads from locks at Bromley-by-Bow to Limehouse Basin. Most of the canal tow-paths are open to both pedestrians and cyclists. The borough includes open spaces such as Victoria Park , King Edward Memorial Park , Mile End Park , Island Gardens and part of

3330-490: The London Docklands Development Corporation . The Canary Wharf development, improved infrastructure, and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park mean that the East End is undergoing further change, but some of its districts continue to see some of the worst poverty in Britain. The area of the modern borough had historically been part of the hundred of Ossulstone in county of Middlesex . Ossulstone

3441-530: The Pool of London , but industries related to construction, repair, and victualling of ships flourished in the area from Tudor times . The area attracted large numbers of rural people looking for employment. Successive waves of foreign immigration began with Huguenot refugees creating a new extramural suburb in Spitalfields in the 17th century. They were followed by Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews and, in

Boundary Estate - Misplaced Pages Continue

3552-569: The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park . Areas within the borough include: The Canary Wharf complex within Docklands on the Isle of Dogs forms a group of some of the tallest buildings in Europe . One Canada Square was the first to be constructed and is the third tallest in London. Nearby are the HSBC Tower , Citigroup Centres and One Churchill Place , headquarters of Barclays Bank . Within

3663-645: The Tower of London , through several miles of former docklands, including the Isle of Dogs peninsula, to the confluence of the Thames and Lea at Blackwall . Areas along the Thames and Lea flood plains were historically frequently flooded, but the Thames Barrier , further east, has reduced that risk. Regent's Canal enters the borough from Hackney to meet the River Thames at Limehouse Basin . A stretch of

3774-512: The Young V&;A and St John's Church , designed by John Soane . In John Stow 's Survey of London (1598) the hamlet was called Blethenal Green . It was one of the hamlets included in the Manor of Stepney and Hackney. Hackney later became separated. In 1678, the owners of houses surrounding the Green purchased the land to save it from being built on and in 1690, the land was conveyed to

3885-553: The 1970s. According to the 2001 UK Census the population of the borough is approximately 196,106. According to the ONS estimate, the population is 237,900, as of 2010. Crime in the borough increased by 3.5% from 2009 to 2010, according to figures from the Metropolitan Police , having decreased by 24% between 2003/04 and 2007/08. Tower Hamlets has one of the smallest White British populations of any local authority in

3996-411: The 20th century, Bangladeshis . Many of these immigrants worked in the clothing industry. The abundance of semi- and unskilled labour led to low wages and poor conditions throughout the East End. This brought the attentions of social reformers during the mid-18th century and led to the formation of unions and workers associations at the end of the century. The radicalism of the East End contributed to

4107-580: The Bethnal Green Improvement Scheme displaced 5,719 people and demolished 730 houses. Originally it was planned as a series of rectangular plots, but in 1893 a radial plan that would house a greater number of people was approved. Owen Fleming designed the Boundary Street scheme. He retained only Boundary Street in the west and Mount Street in the east, though he widened both to 40 ft (12 m). Old Nichol Street

4218-432: The Bethnal Green side of the historic boundary with Whitechapel , is reputed to be the site of his begging. A depiction of the beggar is known to have been used on the head of the local beadle's staff in 1690. Later, the beggar and his daughter were the basis of the common seal of the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green . The legend also inspired Elisabeth Frink 's sculpture Blind Beggar and his Dog (1958) on

4329-485: The Boundary Estate in 1914, from nearby Brick Lane and attended Rochelle Street School. At that time, 90% of children attending the school spoke Yiddish . Tower Hamlets Council has made proposals to transfer the estate to a housing association , and upgrade the accommodation. A full refurbishment of one of the blocks, Iffley House was carry out by Sprunt Architects to demonstrate how this might be achieved but

4440-543: The Jews built Palestine Place as Cambridge Heath began to be fully developed during the first half of the 19th century. A windmill survived until at least 1836. Most local residents were poor, especially in the streets around the railway line and the Regent's Canal, as well as on Russia Lane. In 1841, the Anglo-Catholic Nathaniel Woodard , who was to become a highly influential educationalist in

4551-493: The Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green, affecting 21,700 houses, destroying 2,233 and making a further 893 uninhabitable. There were a total of 555 people killed and 400 seriously injured. Many unexploded bombs remain in the area, and on 14 May 2007, builders discovered a Second World War 1 m long 500 lb (230 kg) bomb . On 3 March 1943, the air-raid civil defence siren sounded at 8:17 pm, causing

Boundary Estate - Misplaced Pages Continue

4662-544: The Nichol had grown even more squalid in the last 20 years as old houses decayed and traditional trades became masks for thieves and prostitutes. The Builder in 1863, noted the numbers inhabiting unfit cellars, the lack of sanitation and that running water was only available for 10–12 minutes each day. For ecclesiastical purposes, the Old Nichol was part of the parish of Holy Trinity, Shoreditch from 1866. However, there

4773-686: The Ripper operated at the western end of Bethnal Green and in neighbouring Whitechapel . In 1900, the Old Nichol Street rookery was replaced with the Boundary Estate (near the limits of Shoreditch). This was a first in council housing . Brothers Lew Grade and Bernard Delfont were brought up on the estate. In 1909, the larger Bethnal Green Estate was opened with money left by the philanthropist William Richard Sutton which he left for "modern dwellings and houses for occupation by

4884-454: The Salmon and Ball public house . Bethnal Green Road Market on the road of the same name, founded in the 18th century, grew and grew and became more full with stalls. By 1959 stalls were choking the streets and the council attempted to relocate the market but had no success. In 1986 there had been many shop closures but the stalls were still trading. The street market is now today recognised as

4995-573: The Tower is thought to have been several centuries earlier than the 1554 record. In 1605, the Lieutenant of the Tower was given the right to muster the militia and the area east of the tower came to be a distinct military unit, officially called Tower Hamlets (or the Tower Division) . The Hamlets of the Tower paid taxes for the militia in 1646. The London Borough of Tower Hamlets forms

5106-479: The United Kingdom. No ethnic group forms a majority of the population; a plurality of residents are white (45%), a little over two thirds of whom are White British. 32% of residents are Bangladeshi , which is the largest ethnic minority group in the borough, with Asians as a whole forming 41% of the population. A smaller proportion are of Black African and Caribbean descent (7%), with Somalis representing

5217-630: The area during the 1950s and 1960s, with a gang known as The Firm. In 2015, three children Amira Abase, Shamima Begum , and Kadiza Sultana appeared in the press, referred to as the Bethnal Green trio . All three had attended the Bethnal Green Academy before leaving home to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Excluding the five-year tenure of George Galloway at Westminster from 2005, for any seat containing

5328-464: The area had become a hamlet , a territorial sub-division of Stepney, with a degree of independence. Continued housebuilding and population growth in the 18th century led to the hamlet area becoming a fully independent daughter parish in 1743. The parish had a church, a benefice (for its priest) and vestry (for its people) in 1743. In 1855 Bethnal Green was included within the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works to which it nominated one member and

5439-629: The area to provide military service to the Constable of the Tower of London . From 1856 the area was governed by the Metropolitan Board of Works , which was established to provide services across the metropolis of London. In 1889 the Metropolitan Board of Works' area was made the County of London . From 1856 until 1900 the lower tier of local government within the metropolis comprised various parish vestries and district boards . In 1900

5550-443: The area, it was noted: Roads were unmade, often mere alleys, houses small and without foundations, subdivided and often around unpaved courts. An almost total lack of drainage and sewerage was made worse by the ponds formed by the excavation of brickearth. Pigs and cows in back yards, noxious trades like boiling tripe, melting tallow, or preparing cat's meat, and slaughter houses, dustheaps, and 'lakes of putrefying night soil' added to

5661-736: The asylum are kept in the annual reports of the Commissioner in Lunacy. Even today, the park where the library stands is known locally as "Barmy Park". The original mansion, the White House, was supplemented by other buildings. In 1891, the Trust lost the use of Poor's Land to the London County Council. The asylum reorganised its buildings, demolishing the historic White House and erecting a new block in 1896. This building became

SECTION 50

#1732773266209

5772-466: The borough has one of the lowest proportions of population over the age of 65 or older in England and Wales, at 5.6%. Tower Hamlets is a religious diverse borough with various places of worship . According to the 2021 census, 39.9% of the population was Muslim , 22.3% Christian , 2.0% Hindu , 1.0% Buddhist , 0.4% Jewish , 0.3% Sikh , 0.5% followed some other religion, 26.6% were not affiliated to

5883-564: The borough have high levels of racial segregation . The Times reported in 2006 that 47 per cent of secondary schools were exclusively non-white, and that 33 per cent had a white majority. About 60 per cent of pupils entering primary and secondary school are Bangladeshi. 78% of primary-school pupils speak English as a second language . The council runs several Idea Stores in the borough, which combine traditional library and computer services with other resources, and are designed to attract more diverse members. The flagship Whitechapel store

5994-428: The borough. The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is the local education authority for state schools within the borough. In January 2008, there were 19,890 primary-school pupils and 15,262 secondary-school pupils attending state schools there. Private-school pupils account for 2.4 per cent of schoolchildren in the borough. In 2010, 51.8 per cent of pupils achieved 5 A*–C GCSEs including Mathematics and English –

6105-442: The core of the East End. The population of the area grew enormously in the 19th century, leading to extreme overcrowding and a concentration of poor people and immigrants throughout the area. These problems were exacerbated by the construction of St Katharine Docks (1827) and the central London railway termini (1840–1875) with many displaced people moving into the area following the clearance of former slums and rookeries . Over

6216-487: The council has been led by the directly elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets . Since 2000, the borough lies within the City and East constituency, one of fourteen constituencies which make up the London Assembly , and is represented by Unmesh Desai of the Labour Party. For the 2019 general election , the borough was split into two constituencies : Due to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies ,

6327-581: The course of a century, the East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease and criminality. The area was once characterised by rural settlements 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

6438-416: The district, the abundance of cheap labour was turned to boot, furniture and clothing manufacture. Globe Town continued its expansion into the 1860s, long after the decline of the silk industry. Columbia Road Flower Market is on the street of the same name which has kept some Victorian shops, and was established as Columbia Market in 1869 as a covered food market. It closed in 1886, but was later revived as

6549-468: The east side of the Green, No. 18 has a Tudor well in its cellar. The silk-weaving trade spread eastwards from Spitalfields throughout the 18th century. This attracted many Huguenot and Irish weavers to the district. Large estates of small two-storey cottages were developed in the west of the area to house them. A downturn in the trade in 1769 led to the Spitalfield Riots , and on 6 December 1769, two weavers accused of "cutting" were hanged in front of

6660-484: The estate lay just within the boundaries of the historic parish and (from 1900) Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green , which in 1965 became part of the new London Borough of Tower Hamlets. For ecclesiastical purposes, it lay within the parish of Holy Trinity, Shoreditch , created in 1866. The estate's name reflects its borderline location. In 1680 John Nichol of Gray's Inn , who had built seven houses here, leased 4.75 acres (1.92 ha) of gardens for 180 years to

6771-557: The filth. In about 1860 in A Visit to the Rookery of St Giles and its Neighbourhood , he mentions the area again and uses the term rookery . The vicar of St Philip's, the church serving the Nichol, quoted by Frederick Engels , stated that in 1844 "conditions were far worse than in a northern industrial parish, that population density was 8.6 people to a (small) house, and that there were 1,400 houses in an area less than 400 yd (370 m) square"; and in 1861 John Hollingshead , of The Morning Post , in his Ragged London noted that

SECTION 60

#1732773266209

6882-405: The formation of the Labour Party and demands for the enfranchisement of women . Official attempts to address the overcrowded housing began at the beginning of the 20th century under the London County Council . Aerial bombing in World War II devastated much of the East End, with its docks, railways and industry forming a continual target. In the separate boroughs making up today's Tower Hamlets

6993-509: The highest paid workers in London, but also has high rates of long-term illness and premature death and the 2nd highest unemployment rate in London. Canary Wharf is home to the many of the world and European headquarters of numerous major banks and professional services firms including Barclays , Citigroup , Clifford Chance , Credit Suisse , Infosys , Fitch Ratings , HSBC , J.P. Morgan , KPMG , MetLife , Morgan Stanley , RBC , Skadden , State Street and Thomson Reuters . Savills ,

7104-623: The highest proportion of children in poverty of any local authority in the UK at 49% (and as high as 54.5% in the Bethnal Green South ward). Surveys and interviews conducted by the Child Poverty Action group for the council found that the Universal Credit system was deeply unpopular with low-income families in the borough and that most claimants who have used the system found it difficult to understand and experienced frequent payment errors. The East London Advertiser and Social Streets provide local news in print and online. There are also several Bengali print and online newspapers published in

7215-437: The highest results in the borough's history – compared to the national average of 53.4 per cent. Seventy-four per cent achieved 5 A*–C GCSEs for all subjects (the same as the English average); the figure in 1997 was 26 per cent. The percentage of pupils on free school meals in the borough is the highest in England and Wales . In 2007, the council rejected proposals to build a Goldman Sachs -sponsored academy . Schools in

7326-455: The house off Bethnal Green Road seeking shelter, this location was more attractive than the stables under the nearby Great Eastern Main Line arches. The Chief Shelter Welfare Officer at the time, Jane Leverson, is reported to have said that "people came to Oxford House not because it was an air raid shelter but because there they found happiness and a true spirit of fellowship". It is estimated that during this war, 80 tons of bombs fell on

7437-463: The housing of the working classes from the Metropolitan Board of Works . In the first election, the progressives obtained a large majority. The Housing Committee secured from Parliament the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 ( 53 & 54 Vict. c. 70), which gave it powers to implement the Torrens and Cross acts, and gave legal basis for it to manage housing estates. LCC chose Boundary Street as their flagship scheme. Initially they attempted to get

7548-431: The lack of some modern amenities they remain popular with tenants and there is an active community. Streatley Buildings were demolished in 1971. These were the first dwellings on the Boundary Estate, on the east side. They were spartan larger flats erected 1893-4. The 1870 Elementary Education Act made it compulsory for all children between the ages of five and twelve to be given a basic education at public expense. This

7659-426: The largest range of Bangladeshi cuisine , woodwork, carpets and clothes in Europe. The Lane is also a major centre of hipster subculture. The earliest reference to the name "Tower Hamlets" was in 1554, when the Council of the Tower of London ordered a muster of "men of the hamlets which owe their service to the tower". This covered a wider area than the present-day borough, and its military relationship with

7770-434: The later part of the 19th century, became the curate of the newly created St. Bartholomew's in Bethnal Green. He was a capable pastoral visitor and established a parochial school. In 1843, he got into trouble for preaching a sermon in which he argued that The Book of Common Prayer should have additional material to provide for confession and absolution and in which he criticised the "inefficient and Godless clergy" of

7881-496: The life of a child in the slum, re-christened by Morrison as The Jago : "What was too vile for Kate Street, Seven Dials , and Ratcliffe Highway in its worst day, what was too useless, incapable and corrupt — all that teemed on the Old Jago". Demolition actually began before the publication of the book. The London County Council was created by the Local Government (England and Wales) Act 1888 , some 53 years after other major cities had been municipalised. It took responsibility for

7992-470: The local emblem when it was a partly self-governing neighbourhood of Tower Hamlets from 1986 to 1992, and the symbol can still be seen on many local street signs. The mulberry is also used as a symbol of the East End more generally, and is featured on the coat of arms of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets . The Green and Poor's Land is the area of open land now occupied by Bethnal Green Library ,

8103-497: The lower tier was reorganised into metropolitan boroughs , including the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green , the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar and the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney . The modern borough was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963 . It was a merger of the old boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney, and was named Tower Hamlets after the historic liberty. Tower Hamlets

8214-568: The maps of Booth in Life and Labour of the People in London (3 editions, 1889–1903) were in large part cleared before the aerial bombardment of the Second World War which accelerated clearance of many tightly packed terraces of small houses to be replaced with green spaces and higher-rise social housing. The topographer Daniel Lysons suggested in the late 18th century that Bethnal

8325-493: The name Bethnal Green: the pre-1945 General Election decades of Bethnal Green South West was the last time when such a seat was not won by the chosen Labour Party candidate. Bethnal Green forms part of the UK Parliament constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow . Its MP since 2010 has been Rushanara Ali of the Labour Party . London overall has a directly elected executive Mayor of London, currently Sadiq Khan , and

8436-556: The new County of London in 1889. The County of London was replaced by Greater London in 1965. In what would become northern Bethnal Green (known as Cambridge Heath ) a tract of common land , which stretched to the east and west, a part of the Manor and Ancient Parish of Stepney . The heath was used as pasture where people grazed their sheep in the 13th century, though 1275 records suggest at least one house stood there. Stepney's Manor House (known as Bishopswood , later Bishop's Hall )

8547-581: The new tenants were clerks, policemen, cigarmakers and nurses. Such was the success of the campaign, that the Prince of Wales officially opened the estate in early March 1900, saying Few indeed will forget this site who had read Mr Morrison's A Child of the Jago, and all of us are familiar with the labours of that most excellent philanthropist, Mr. Jay, in this neighbourhood . The impresarios and brothers Lew Grade and Bernard Delfont (born Winogradsky) moved to

8658-479: The nineteenth century, the local population increased by an average of 20% every ten years. The building of the docks intensified land use and caused the last marshy areas in the south of the parish to be drained for housing and industry. In the north of the borough, employment was principally in weaving, small household industries like boot and furniture making and new industrial enterprises like Bryant and May . The availability of cheap labour drew in many employers. To

8769-474: The outbreak of the Second World War although rails were not laid. The book Family and Kinship in East London (1957) shows an improvement in working class life. Husbands in the sample population no longer went out to drink but spent time with the family. As a result, both birth rate and infant death rate fell drastically and local prosperity increased. The famous criminals, the Kray twins , lived and operated in

8880-484: The parish in December 1886. Charles Booth had already noted the extreme poverty in the area in his study of London poverty. Nearly 6,000 individuals were crammed into the packed streets. The death rate was twice that of the rest of Bethnal Green , and four times that of London. One child in four died before their first birthday. Redevelopment had been resisted by members of the Bethnal Green vestry , who owned much of

8991-602: The poor of London and other towns and populous places in England". The Peabody Trust administered the funds to complete much of the estate in 1910. The Regent's Canal opened in 1820, for horse-drawn canal barges to carry cargo between the London Docklands and the Grand Union Canal . These supplied local coal merchants and gas houses/plants (gasifiers) built along its banks including Bethnal Green. The London Society for Promoting Christianity among

9102-556: The population growth. This migration peaked at the end of that century and population growth entered a long decline through to the 1960s, as people moved away eastwards to newer suburbs of London and Essex . The area's population had neared 600,000 around the end of the nineteenth century, but fell to a low of less than 140,000 by the early 1980s. The metropolitan boroughs suffered very badly during World War II , during which considerable numbers of houses were destroyed or damaged beyond use due to heavy aerial bombing . This coincided with

9213-586: The present Bethnal Green Library. A history of Poor's Land and Bethnal House is included in The Green , written by A.J. Robinson and D.H.B. Chesshyre. Boxing has a long association with Bethnal Green. Daniel Mendoza , who was champion of England from 1792 to 1795 though born in Aldgate , lived in Paradise Row on the western side of Bethnal Green for 30 years. Joe Anderson , 'All England' champion of 1897,

9324-668: The private sector involved but failed. In 1893, on the back of the Blackwall Tunnel Act 1892 they gained permission from the Home Secretary to rebuild a small section of the scheme. The principle had been established. The newly established London County Council (LCC) decided to rebuild an area of some 15-acre (6.1 ha), including the Nichol and Snow estates, and a small piece on the Shoreditch side of Boundary Street, formerly Cock Lane. What became known as

9435-582: The proposal was rejected by a ballot of tenants in November 2006. The estate radiates from a centrepiece roundabout, Arnold Circus, formed around a garden with a bandstand . It is now being preserved by the Friends of Arnold Circus and has received grants for regeneration. Restoration work on the bandstand was completed in 2010. Arnold Circus is also a mark point on several ley alignments including Alfred Watkins ' "Strand Ley" and "The Coronation Line", which

9546-472: The recently formed London County Council . Soil from the foundations was used to construct a mound in the middle of Arnold Circus at the centre of the development, surmounted by an extant bandstand . The estate consists of multistorey brick tenements radiating from the central circus , each of which bears the name of a town or village along the non-tidal reaches of the Thames . For administrative purposes,

9657-453: 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'

9768-546: The rookery, and were responsible for electing members of the Metropolitan Board of Works . The powers the vestries and board were limited to the Torrens Act and the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875 (Cross Act) which the Bethnal Green vestry refused to use. Jay persuaded Arthur Morrison to visit the area, and the result was the influential A Child of the Jago , a barely fictionalised account of

9879-524: The same complex are the Heron Quays offices. Part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park , developed for the London 2012 Olympics , lies within the borders of Tower Hamlets. The Embassy of China in London will move into the former Royal Mint building in East Smithfield . The local authority is Tower Hamlets Council, based at Tower Hamlets Town Hall on Whitechapel Road . Since 2010

9990-455: The same name ) represented by Councillors Kevin Brady, Tarik Khan and Gabriella Salva-Macallan; and Weaver's represented by Councillors John Pierce and Abdul Mukit All local councillors are currently members of the Labour Party . Between 1986 and 1992, the name Bethnal Green was applied to one of seven neighbourhoods to which power was devolved from the council. Much of the street signage in

10101-456: The same number of people, but the occupiers changed. The original inhabitants were forced further to the East, creating new overcrowding and new slums in areas such as Dalston and Bethnal Green . No help was offered to those displaced to find new accommodation, and this added to the suffering and misery of many of the former residents of the slum. The new blocks had policies to enforce sobriety and

10212-401: The second-largest minority ethnic group. Those of mixed ethnic backgrounds form 4%, while other ethnic groups form 2%. The White British proportion was recorded as 31.2% in the 2011 UK Census, a decrease from 42.9% in 2001. In 2018, Tower Hamlets had the lowest life expectancy and the highest rate of heart disease of all London boroughs, along with Newham . The 2021 census found that

10323-427: The south, employment was in the docks and related industries – such as chandlery and rope making. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the district now recognised as Tower Hamlets was characterised by overcrowding and poverty. The construction of the railways caused many more displaced people to settle in the area, and a massive influx of Eastern European Jews at the latter part of the nineteenth century added to

10434-476: The subsequent general election will see Tower Hamlets elect MPs in three constituencies. These are; The data below were taken between 1971 and 2000 at the weather station in Greenwich , around 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the borough's former town hall, at Mulberry Place : By 1891, Tower Hamlets – roughly the ancient civil parish of Stepney – was already one of the most populated areas in London. Throughout

10545-734: The tune of the Blind Beggar . A play on the same theme, almost certainly based on an existing ballad, is known to have been performed in 1600. According to one version of the legend, found in Thomas Percy 's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry published in 1765, the beggar was said to be Henry , the son of Simon de Montfort , but Percy himself declared that this version was not genuine. A version published in 1934, closely based on Percy's but with some amendments to include much older material, contains 67 verses. The ballad recounts how Bess leaves Bethnal Green to seek her fortune, and stays

10656-549: The various local government bodies were replaced by a single incorporated vestry which consisted of 48 elected vestrymen. Under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 , any parish that exceeded 2,000 ratepayers was to be divided into wards; as such the incorporated vestry of St Matthew Bethnal Green was divided into four wards (electing vestrymen ): No. 1 or East (9), No. 2 or North (9), No. 3 or West (15) and No. 4 or South (15). The (civil) parish became

10767-472: The word for "happy, blithe", or come from a personal name Blitha . In either case, the Dictionary of London Place Names supports a contraction involving hall or healh , noting h-dropping in local dialects, to Bethnal Green . The term Bethnal Green originally referred to a small common in the Manor and Ancient Parish of Stepney ; around which a small settlement developed. By the seventeenth century

10878-553: Was a corruption of Bathon Hall which would have been the residence of a notable Bathon family who owned large parts of Stepney , the parish of which Bethnal Green was part. "Green" related to one which lay "about half a mile beyond the suburbs". More recently it has been suggested that the name could be a derivation of the Anglo-Saxon Blithehale or Blythenhale from the 13th century. healh would have meant "angle, nook, or corner" and blithe would have been

10989-495: Was also formerly served by trains on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) via Stratford and saw two derailments in the later 20th century, similar to other contemporary comparators of busy, metropolitan junctions. Mowlem Street School opened in 1887. It was enlarged in 1898 and again in 1902 to accommodate 410 boys and 410 girls. A new single-storey building catering for 280 children was opened in 1971 when it

11100-420: Was also widened and extended to Mount Street, then renamed Swanfield Street. He designed 50 ft (15 m). wide tree lined streets to radiate from an ornamental space called Arnold Circus. The LCC architects designed 21 and Rowland Plumbe two of 23 blocks containing between 10 and 85 tenements each. A total of 1,069 tenements, mostly two or three-roomed, were planned to accommodate 5,524 persons. The project

11211-546: Was designed by David Adjaye , and cost £16 million to build. Mile End Stadium within Mile End Park hosts an athletics stadium and facilities for football and basketball . Two football clubs, Tower Hamlets F.C. (formerly Bethnal Green United) and Sporting Bengal United F.C. , are based there, playing in the Essex Senior Football League . Bethnal Green Bethnal Green

11322-536: Was filed by Eric Linden, who witnessed the incident, with the Daily Mail , but not published. Very little information was provided at the time. The outcome of a government inquiry was not made public until 1946 to avoid a propaganda win for the enemy and to protect public morale. It was the largest loss of life in a single incident on the London Underground network. Director Steve McQueen made

11433-629: Was from Bethnal Green. The north end of the Green is associated with the Natt family. During the 18th century they owned many of its houses. Netteswell House is the residence of the curator of the Bethnal Green Museum. It is almost certainly named after the village of Netteswell , near Harlow , whose rector was the Reverend Anthony Natt. A few of its houses have become University settlements . In Victoria Park Square, on

11544-410: Was hailed as setting "new aesthetic standards for housing the working classes" and included a new laundry, 18 shops, and 77 workshops. Churches and schools were preserved. Building for the project began in 1893. The two schools, Rochelle School, which was largely built in 1879, and Virginia School, built in 1887, predated the estate. The new flats replaced the existing slums with decent accommodation for

11655-567: Was located in Bethnal Green from at least 1207, on a site subsequently occupied by the London Chest Hospital . The area was once best known for the popular early modern ballad, The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green , which tells the story of a beautiful young woman named Bess, the daughter of a blind beggar. The earliest known explicit mention of the ballad is from 1624, but it was clearly well established by that date, as two other ballads of similar date were said to have been sung to

11766-433: Was no church building and services were instead held in a hay loft above a stable. Eventually a site on Old Nichol Street was built. The 1896 novel A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison is set in a fictionalised version of Old Nichol. The clearance of the slum houses of the Old Nichol Street rookery was the result of an energetic campaign by the local incumbent, Reverend Osborne Jay of Holy Trinity, who arrived in

11877-494: 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

11988-475: Was renamed Mowlem Primary School. Bethnal Green Town Hall was completed in 1910 and the internationally renowned York Hall opened in 1929 with a capacity of 1,200. Later, in 1993, the Town Hall was vacated when the London Borough of Tower Hamlets moved its headquarters, and in 2007 the building was converted to a hotel which opened in 2010. The warehouse buildings rose from the Regent's Canal without

12099-491: Was subsequently divided into four divisions, one of which was the Tower Division , also known as the Tower Hamlets, which covered a larger area than the modern borough, also including parts of Hackney . From at least the 17th century the Tower Division was a liberty with judicial and administrative independence from the rest of the county. The liberty appears to have arisen from much older obligations on inhabitants of

12210-525: Was to be provided by Board Schools - and school boards were set up across the country to build and run these schools. It was estimated that 100,000 places would be required in London which was a gross underestimation and 500,000 had been provided by 1900. The architect who oversaw this was E.R.Robson , a student of George Gilbert Scott .The two school houses on the Rochelle campus, juniors and infants, were early examples of Robson's work. The Rochelle School

12321-607: Was visited by Samuel Pepys . In 1727 it was leased to Matthew Wright and for almost two centuries it was an asylum . Its two most distinguished inmates were Alexander Cruden , compiler of the Concordance to the Bible , and the poet Christopher Smart . Cruden recorded his experience in The London Citizen Grievously Injured (1739) and Smart's stay there is recorded by his daughter. Records of

#208791