East London

East London is a popularly and informally defined part of London, capital of the United Kingdom lying east of the ancient City and north of the River Thames. East London comprises the whole of six modern London Boroughs – Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, Havering – and the greater part of a seventh, Hackney.

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

The Eastern (E) Postal District is a different subset of East London and there is also an ‘East’ sub-region defined in the London Plan and used for planning and progress-reporting purposes. The most recent (2011) iteration includes the seven boroughs north of the Thames with the addition of three boroughs south of the river.

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.

...
Wikipedia