Poplar West
Tower Hamlets 024 · 6 sub-areas · 11,197 residents
Poplar West is a workplace corner of Tower Hamlets — daytime population swells with commuters, the streetscape leans busy and built-up rather than residential, and most residents who do live here rent rather than own. The demographic profile leans family-aged, with a clear share of households with school-age children.
Overview
What's it like to live in Poplar West?
The area is unusually green for its density — 20 parks and 14 playgrounds sit within five minutes' walk of the centroid; food and drink within walking distance is workable but not dense — around 36 restaurants and 4 pubs in five minutes; Recorded crime is higher than the national norm — common for built-up urban areas, but worth weighing if you're looking for a quieter base; Public transport is genuinely strong; most errands and a fair share of social life don't need a car; rents sit firmly in the upper bracket nationally, with a typical home letting at around £2,396 a month; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 6 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Poplar West in Tower Hamlets
What you'll need on day one
Frequently asked
- What's the median rent in Poplar West?
- The median monthly rent across Poplar West is £2,396.
- How safe is Poplar West?
- Poplar West has a safety score of — out of 100, where higher is safer. The score is the national percentile rank of police-recorded crimes per 1,000 residents per year, inverted.
- How well-connected is Poplar West?
- Transport score: — out of 100. Combines walking time to the nearest rail station, walking time to the nearest metro stop, and public-transport time to clusters with 5,000+ jobs. The nearest rail station is roughly 11 minutes' walk.
- What schools are near Poplar West?
- There are 44 schools within 2 km of Poplar West, of which 48% are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is approximately 360 m away.
- What is the council tax band in Poplar West?
- The most common council tax band in Poplar West is C, with the typical Band D annual charge around £1,659. Council tax is set by Tower Hamlets council and applies to every property in the area.
- How long is the commute from Poplar West to London?
- By the fastest direct train, the journey from Poplar West to central London is approximately 11 minutes. This is the fastest no-change rail journey from the local area centroid; door-to-door times will vary with walking time to the station.
- Is gigabit broadband available in Poplar West?
- 100% of premises in Poplar West are gigabit-capable according to Ofcom Connected Nations 2025. Most properties can already buy gigabit packages.
- What is the deprivation rank of Poplar West?
- Poplar West sits in IMD decile 2 of 10, where 1 is the most deprived 10% of local areas nationally and 10 is the least deprived. The Index of Multiple Deprivation combines income, employment, education, health, crime, barriers and environment.
- What's the tenure mix in Poplar West?
- 18% of households in Poplar West are owner-occupied. The remainder is split between private renting and social housing — see the Demographics section for the full breakdown from Census 2021.
- What is the average property price in Poplar West?
- The average property price across Tower Hamlets (the local authority covering Poplar West) is approximately £455,307, per HM Land Registry's House Price Index. Per-local area prices vary; see the cost-of-living section for medians by property type.
- Is Poplar West a commuter town or workplace hub?
- Mixed — jobs and residents are roughly balanced. (1.11 jobs per working-age resident. Median resident salary £45,183.)
- Which local areas are part of Poplar West?
- Poplar West contains 6 local areas: Tower Hamlets 024G, Tower Hamlets 024D, Tower Hamlets 024F, Tower Hamlets 024H, Tower Hamlets 024E…
Frequently asked about Poplar West
Short answers anchored in the data above. Each link goes to the relevant section or methodology page.
- What is the average rent in Poplar West?
- The estimated median monthly rent in Poplar West is £2,396. This is derived from the council-area ONS rental figure scaled by the local sale-price gradient — see the Cost section for the breakdown by bedroom count and the affordability ratio against local salaries.
- Is Poplar West a safe place to live?
- Poplar West has a safety score of 24/100. The score is the national percentile rank of police-recorded crime per 1,000 residents, inverted so 100 is the safest 1% of England + Wales. The Safety section below shows the breakdown by category.
- What schools are near Poplar West?
- 48% of schools within 2 km of Poplar West are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. The Schools section lists individual schools with inspection ratings.
- How long is the commute from Poplar West?
- Public-transport commute time from Poplar West to central London is approximately 11 minutes. The Transport section has commute times to every major UK city hub.
- How is Poplar West different from the rest of Tower Hamlets?
- Poplar West contains 6 sub-areas. The "Sub-areas" section below lets you drill into each one individually — they often vary by 20%+ on rent and demographics within the same neighbourhood.
- Where does Poplar West rank in Tower Hamlets?
- Poplar West scores 38/100 on our composite liveability index. To see how it stacks up against every other neighbourhood in Tower Hamlets, see the Cities table on the Tower Hamlets page.