East London

East London is a term referring to part of London, capital of the United Kingdom. The current official definition is that East London includes Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Greenwich, Hackney, Havering, Lewisham, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. East London should not be confused with the E postcode area, which is a coding for the postal services and is not intended to provide any official definition of East London or other areas of London.

The East End of London is a subset of East London, corresponding to areas closer to the ancient City.

Geography

Limits and extent

The East End is the old core of East London and there are differing views about how much of East London should be considered part of that core area.

By contrast the extent of East London as a whole can be confidently expressed: lying north of the Thames, stretching from the Roman and Medieval walls of the City to the Metropolitan Green Belt.

Aldgate Pump on the edge of the City is a symbolic start of East London – more specifically the East End. Tower Bridge is sometimes also described in these terms.

London

London ⁱ/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. It was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1.12-square-mile (2.9 km²) medieval boundaries and in 2011 had a resident population of 7,375, making it the smallest city in England. Since at least the 19th century, the term London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms Greater London, a region of England governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The conurbation also covers two English counties: the small district of the City of London and the county of Greater London. The latter constitutes the vast majority of London, though historically it was split between Middlesex (a now abolished county), Essex, Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire.

East End of London

The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is an area of London, England, east of the Roman and medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary. For the purposes of his book, East End Past, Richard Tames regards the area as coterminous with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets: however, he acknowledges that this narrow definition excludes parts of southern Hackney, such as Shoreditch and Hoxton, which many would regard as belonging to the East End. Others again, such as Alan Palmer, would extend the area across the Lea to include parts of the London Borough of Newham; while parts of the London Borough of Waltham Forest and London Borough of Hackney are also sometimes included. It is universally agreed, however, that the East End is to be distinguished from East London, which covers a much wider area.

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. The problems were exacerbated with the construction of St Katharine Docks (1827) and the central London railway termini (1840–1875) that caused the clearance of former slums and rookeries, with many of the displaced people moving into the East End. Over the course of a century, the East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease and criminality.

East

East is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. East is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of west and is perpendicular to north and south.

Etymology

The word east comes from Middle English est, from Old English ēast, which itself comes from the Proto-Germanic *aus-to- or *austra- "east, toward the sunrise", from Proto-Indo-European *aus- "to shine," or "dawn". This is similar to Old High German *ōstar "to the east", Latin aurora "dawn", and Greek ēōs or heōs.Ēostre, a Germanic goddess of dawn, might have been a personification of both dawn and the cardinal points.

Navigation

By convention, the right hand side of a map is east. This convention has developed from the use of a compass, which places north at the top.

To go east using a compass for navigation, set a bearing or azimuth of 90°.

Cultural

East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise. The practice of praying towards the East is older than Christianity, but has been adopted by this religion as the Orient was thought of as containing mankind's original home. Hence, most Christian churches are oriented towards the east.