Borough safety · Inner London · data through August 2026
How safe is Tower Hamlets, London?
Tower Hamlets, London covers 20 neighbourhoods in SafeRoute's Inner London index. Its median safety index is 54/100 — below the Inner London median of 60, so more is reported around a typical neighbourhood here than across Inner London. Island Gardens scores highest at 69/100; Spitalfields & Banglatown lowest at 38/100.
These figures describe reported crime around each neighbourhood's centre — they are informational, not a judgment of any community. 0 of 20 neighbourhoods here rate low risk, 12 moderate, 8 elevated and 0 high risk.
Every neighbourhood in Tower Hamlets, safest first
| Neighbourhood | Index | Band | Incidents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Island Gardens | 69/100 | Moderate | 319 |
| 2 Bow East | 65/100 | Moderate | 397 |
| 3 Poplar | 63/100 | Moderate | 429 |
| 4 Canary Wharf | 60/100 | Moderate | 473 |
| 5 Bow West | 58/100 | Moderate | 560 |
| 6 Blackwall & Cubitt Town | 57/100 | Moderate | 551 |
| 7 Lansbury | 56/100 | Moderate | 576 |
| 8 Limehouse | 55/100 | Moderate | 558 |
| 9 St Katharine's & Wapping | 55/100 | Moderate | 615 |
| 10 Bromley North | 54/100 | Moderate | 662 |
| 11 Shadwell | 54/100 | Moderate | 602 |
| 12 Bethnal Green East | 50/100 | Moderate | 782 |
| 13 Bethnal Green West | 48/100 | Elevated | 807 |
| 14 Bromley South | 48/100 | Elevated | 811 |
| 15 St Dunstan's | 48/100 | Elevated | 813 |
| 16 Mile End | 47/100 | Elevated | 844 |
| 17 Stepney Green | 46/100 | Elevated | 877 |
| 18 Weavers | 42/100 | Elevated | 1,060 |
| 19 Whitechapel | 42/100 | Elevated | 1,023 |
| 20 Spitalfields & Banglatown | 38/100 | Elevated | 1,170 |
Walking in Tower Hamlets, London at night?
SafeRoute scores every walking route against the same official crime data on this page — and shows how much of each route runs on lit streets. Compare the routes and share your walk. Free, no account.
Get SafeRoute on the App StoreHow Tower Hamlets compares across Inner London
| Boroughs (safest first) | Median index | Neighbourhoods |
|---|---|---|
| Greenwich | 80/100 | 23 |
| Wandsworth | 75/100 | 22 |
| Lewisham | 74/100 | 19 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 62/100 | 21 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 60/100 | 18 |
| Hackney | 59/100 | 21 |
| Lambeth | 58/100 | 25 |
| Southwark | 57/100 | 23 |
| Camden | 57/100 | 20 |
| Tower Hamlets (this page) | 54/100 | 20 |
| Islington | 50/100 | 17 |
| Westminster | 48/100 | 18 |
Common questions
What is the safest neighbourhood in Tower Hamlets, London?
Island Gardens has the highest SafeRoute safety index in Tower Hamlets, London, at 69/100 (moderate), from 319 reported incidents within 1 km of its centre. Bow East (65/100) and Poplar (63/100) follow.
Which neighbourhood in Tower Hamlets, London has the most reported crime?
Spitalfields & Banglatown has the lowest index in Tower Hamlets, London, at 38/100, with 1,170 reported incidents within 1 km of its centre. A low score means more is reported around that centre, which busy commercial and transport areas produce simply by having more people in them — it is not a measure of how dangerous a resident's street is.
Is Tower Hamlets, London safe?
Across its 20 neighbourhoods the median SafeRoute safety index is 54/100, against 60 across Inner London. 0 rate low risk, 12 moderate, 8 elevated and 0 high risk. These describe reported crime only and vary widely within the borough — check the individual neighbourhood rather than reading one number for the whole of it.
How is the SafeRoute safety index calculated?
SafeRoute weights each police-recorded incident by severity (violence weighs more than shoplifting), sums the last available period within 1 km of the neighbourhood centre, and normalises against national crime rates onto a 0–100 scale — higher is safer. It describes reported crime only; it is not a guarantee of safety. The figure shown for Tower Hamlets, London is the median of its 20 neighbourhoods — the borough is not measured separately.
Methodology
Each incident published by the police (via data.police.uk, Open Government Licence) is weighted by severity — violence counts for more than shoplifting. For every ward we sum weighted incidents within 1 km of its centre (ONS December 2025 ward centroids), and normalise onto a 0–100 index, higher = safer. Incident locations are anonymised by the police to nearby snap points, so the maps show streets rather than exact addresses. Pages regenerate as new data is published.
The index compares neighbourhoods within Inner London. It is not comparable between cities: each police force publishes a different set of offences over a different period — London's figures cannot be read against another city's on the same 0–100 scale.