Place Name
Takes its name from the local borough of Tower Hamlets, which is itself a reference to the small hamlets that surrounded the Tower of London and the hamlets surrounding it. The name was first recorded in the 16thCentury when the Constable of the Tower of London also commanded the Tower Hamlet Militia as the Lord Lieutenant of the 21 Tower Hamlets, Bethnal Green, Blackwall, Bow, Bromley, East Smithfield, Hackney, Limehouse, Mile End, Norton Folgate, Old Ford, Poplar, Ratcliff, St Katherine’s, Shadwell, Shoreditch, Spitalfields, Tower Liberty Within, Tower Liberty Without, Trinity Minories, Wapping and Whitechapel.
