Is Tower Hamlets a good place to live?
Tower Hamlets scores 59 out of 100 on our Liveability index, 2nd of London's 33 boroughs. It does best on transport (93) and shops and services (84), and least well on safety (5). The highest-scoring wards are Bethnal Green East, Mile End and Bethnal Green West.
Each part compares Tower Hamlets with the rest of London, where 100 is the best. The score uses our default weights; on the map you can set your own.
Is Tower Hamlets safe?
Police recorded about 4,479 crimes a month in Tower Hamlets from June to August 2026, about 220 per square kilometre, above the London borough median of 63. The most common were violence and sexual offences (25%), anti-social behaviour (23%) and shoplifting (12%).
Recorded crime follows footfall: busy town centres and transport hubs record more, which says little about quiet residential streets. Check the exact street with an area report.
Does Tower Hamlets flood?
About 32% of Tower Hamlets's land is in Flood Zone 2 or 3, the Environment Agency's zones for flooding from rivers or the sea, against 13% across London. About 29% sits in Flood Zone 3, the highest risk band. The zones ignore flood defences and do not cover surface water flooding.
Are there good schools in Tower Hamlets?
Tower Hamlets has 66 state primary and 18 state secondary schools, plus 14 independent schools. Of the state schools with a current single Ofsted grade, 97% are good or outstanding and 32% are outstanding, against a London borough median of 24% outstanding. Outstanding schools include Globe Primary School, Marion Richardson Primary School and Mayflower Primary School.
Ofsted stopped giving a single overall grade in September 2024, so recently inspected schools have none. Always check admissions and catchment rules with the school or council.
How good is public transport in Tower Hamlets?
Tower Hamlets has 30 Underground, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR or tram stations on the District, Hammersmith & City, Circle, Metropolitan, Central and Jubilee and more, in fare zones 1 and 2. About 73% of the borough has good or better access (TfL PTAL 4 to 6b), against 15% of London.
How much does it cost to live in Tower Hamlets?
The average home in Tower Hamlets cost £458,392 in March 2026 (HM Land Registry), down 7.6% over five years. The average private rent was £2,410 a month (ONS, May 2026 release), a gross yield of about 6.3%. Homes cost 11.8 times average local earnings.
What is the air quality like in Tower Hamlets?
Nitrogen dioxide averaged 26 µg/m³ across Tower Hamlets in 2022 (London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory), against a London median of 20 and a World Health Organization guideline of 10. Fine particles (PM2.5) averaged 10 µg/m³ against a guideline of 5. Air is usually worst beside main roads.
What are the shops, parks and GPs like in Tower Hamlets?
OpenStreetMap lists 29 supermarkets, 47 GP surgeries and 44 pharmacies in Tower Hamlets, and 142 public parks covering about 231 hectares. About 30% of the borough is in a conservation area, where outside changes usually need permission.
How deprived is Tower Hamlets?
The typical neighbourhood in Tower Hamlets is in decile 3 of 10 on the English Indices of Deprivation 2025, where 1 is the most deprived tenth of England and 10 the least. About 44% of the borough is in the most deprived fifth.
Which parts of Tower Hamlets score best?
The highest Liveability scores in Tower Hamlets are in Bethnal Green East, Mile End and Bethnal Green West, and the lowest in Bow East and Blackwall & Cubitt Town. Every ward is below, with its scores for safety, transport, shops, green space and schools out of 100.
| Ward | Liveability | Safety | Transport | Shops | Green | Schools |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bethnal Green East | 64 | 5 | 94 | 83 | 84 | 88 |
| Mile End | 64 | 3 | 95 | 84 | 81 | 88 |
| Bethnal Green West | 63 | 2 | 95 | 91 | 77 | 90 |
| Bromley North | 62 | 11 | 93 | 81 | 65 | 85 |
| St Dunstan's | 62 | 4 | 96 | 82 | 85 | 85 |
| Stepney Green | 62 | 2 | 97 | 88 | 71 | 92 |
| Weavers | 62 | 1 | 88 | 88 | 71 | 94 |
| Spitalfields & Banglatown | 61 | 1 | 98 | 91 | 64 | 88 |
| Whitechapel | 61 | 2 | 98 | 88 | 58 | 88 |
| Shadwell | 60 | 5 | 95 | 85 | 65 | 92 |
| Tower | 59 | 1 | 99 | 93 | 55 | 61 |
| Bromley South | 58 | 4 | 90 | 80 | 60 | 87 |
| Island Gardens | 58 | 17 | 82 | 73 | 82 | 75 |
| Portsoken | 57 | 1 | 100 | 95 | 30 | 77 |
| Bow West | 57 | 10 | 64 | 81 | 86 | 76 |
| Limehouse | 56 | 4 | 96 | 77 | 72 | 73 |
| Poplar | 55 | 5 | 94 | 85 | 75 | 73 |
| St Katharine's & Wapping | 55 | 9 | 83 | 83 | 56 | 71 |
| Canary Wharf | 54 | 7 | 96 | 86 | 57 | 58 |
| Lansbury | 54 | 7 | 85 | 76 | 71 | 77 |
| Bow East | 53 | 12 | 62 | 70 | 84 | 56 |
| Blackwall & Cubitt Town | 51 | 10 | 86 | 80 | 63 | 39 |
Nearby areas
Where these numbers come from
- Crime: police.uk street-level crime, June to August 2026, averaged per month.
- Flood zones and conservation areas: Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning and local authority conservation areas, via planning.data.gov.uk.
- Schools: Department for Education Get Information About Schools, with Ofsted grades.
- Transport: TfL stations and PTAL 2023. Air quality: London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory 2022.
- Prices: HM Land Registry UK House Price Index (March 2026) and ONS private rents (May 2026 release) and affordability ratios.
- Shops, GPs and parks: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Deprivation: English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG).
- Liveability: our score for each ~500 m square of London, built from the sources above; borough and ward figures are medians of their squares.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right. © OpenStreetMap contributors. Powered by TfL Open Data.