in the foreground and the skyscrapers of the Isle of Dogs behind.]] East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of railways in the 19th century encouraged the eastward expansion of the East End of London and a proliferation of new suburbs. The industrial lands of East London are today an area of regeneration, which are well advanced in places such as Canary Wharf and ongoing elsewhere.
In 1720 John Strype described London as consisting of four main parts; The City of London, Westminster, Southwark and That Part Beyond the Tower. This was the first time that East London was explicitly recognised as one of the capital's major quarters.
The relevance of Strype's reference to the Tower of London was more than geographical. The East End was the urbanised part of an administrative area called the Tower Division, which had owed military service to the Constable of the Tower (in his ex-officio role as Lord Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets) from an unknown point in the medieval period, having its roots in the Bishop of London's historic Manor of Stepney. This made the Constable a prominent figure in the civil and military affairs of the East End.East London Papers. Volume 8 Paper 2.
Growth was stimulated by the maritime trades (such as shipbuilding and dockyards) along the River Thames, with weaving a major employer inland, and many factories sprung up on either bank of the River Lea. These factories accelerated the growth of new suburbs beginning in West Ham, that lay east of Bow Bridge, and the Lea, in Essex. This growth was given further impetus by the opening of the Royal Victoria Dock in 1855.
The Tower Division continued to operate as a county and hundred until replaced by the new Metropolitan Boroughs of Stepney, Shoreditch, Hackney, Poplar and Bethnal Green, in the new County of London, in local government re-organisations of 1890 and 1900. These boroughs would be replaced by larger new London boroughs in 1965.
In 1854 the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway connected Forest Gate on the Eastern Counties with Barking and Rainham. The East London Railway was opened in 1869. The Great Eastern Railway connected Lea Bridge with Walthamstow in 1870, and in 1872 built a connection from the Eastern Counties line at Bethnal Green to Hackney Downs. This was connected to the Walthamstow line in 1873 and extended to Chingford. The London and Blackwall built an extension to Millwall and North Greenwich on the Isle of Dogs in 1872 and the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway was extended to Beckton in 1873, and Gallions in 1880. The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway connected Barking with Dagenham, Hornchurch and Upminster in 1885, and Romford with Upminster in 1893. The final piece of original railway works was the construction of the Great Eastern loop line to connect Woodford with Ilford via Fairlop in 1903.
By 1882, Walter Besant, and others, were able to describe East London as a city in its own right, on account of its large size and social disengagement from the rest of London (Besant would also say the same of South London).All Sorts and Conditions of Men, Walter Besant 1882. In 1902 he would describe East London as an area north of the Thames and east of the City of London stretching as far as Chingford and Epping Forest.East London, Sir Walter Besant, Century Company, 1901
Charles Booth in 1889 defined East London as the County of London between the City of London and the River Lea.Descriptive Map of London Poverty, Charles Booth, 1889 The scope of Booth's work only included the parts of the capital that had been included in the new County of London and therefore excluded parts of London in Essex. In 1902 Booth would describe the areas of East London west of the Lea as the "true East End".
In 1950 Robert Sinclair described East London as stretching east to include the more newly developed areas of Barking and Dagenham. This broadly matched the Metropolitan Police District east of the city and north of the Thames at that time, and now corresponds to the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Hackney, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest in Greater London.East London: The east and north-east boroughs of London and Greater London (County book series), Robert Sinclair, 1950
The part of East London east of the Lea was known as "London-over-the-Border"
/ref> and later as "Metropolitan Essex".'Metropolitan Essex since 1919: The Second World War and after'
accessed.
Waltham Forest LBC | |
North East | |
Outer | |
Dalston | Walthamstow |
278,425 |
222,000 |
154,146 |
6,500 |
280,094 |
(1931) |
Until the end of the 20th century the East was connected to the South London by just one railway line, the East London Line, now part of the London Overground. The Jubilee Line Extension opened in 1999, was supplemented by an extension to the Docklands Light Railway in 2009, and introduction of the Elizabeth line in 2022.
There are road tunnels at Rotherhithe, Blackwall Tunnel, and Silvertown, with the Woolwich Ferry further east. There are foot tunnels to Greenwich and Woolwich. In 1870, the Tower Subway cable railway tunnel was converted to pedestrian use; it was closed in 1898, following the opening of Tower Bridge.
A cable car service opened in 2012.
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