The poverty and attendant social problems of the East End have long drawn attention; in the late 19th century William Booth (Booth, William) founded the Salvation Army there. Traditionally the life of the area centred on the wharves along the Thames. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (Brunel, Isambard Kingdom)'s steamship Great Eastern was launched at Millwall in 1859, and shipbuilding flourished there until the 1890s. Various roads were cut to the docks, and the now recreational Regent's Canal linked the borough to northern England by way of the Grand Union Canal. Heavy damage inflicted by German bombing during World War II prompted a first wave of urban renewal, which was dominated by public housing. Dock and wharf closures from the late 1960s prompted a second, privately driven development boom. In the 1980s Canary Wharf and the area of the Isle of Dogs saw much innovative construction as part of the London Docklands redevelopment project. Near the Tower of London, the area of St. Katharine's Docks (1825–28) was transformed beginning in 1968 by the construction of a hotel, a trade centre, apartments, and a marina. In the late 20th century the borough became a centre for newspaper printing and publishing, as many firms relocated there from Fleet Street in the City of London. See also BTW: London Classics: London in World War II.

Tower Bridge carries traffic across the Thames, but the borough is also linked to Southwark by the Rotherhithe Tunnel (1904–08). Farther east, both a pedestrian tunnel and the Blackwall Tunnel provide links with Greenwich. Area 7.6 square miles (20 square km). Pop. (2001) 196,106.