Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London 3 miles northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the area holds conservation area status, chiefly due to protected small, public greens and listed buildings. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By the 16th century the term applied to a wider rural area, the Hamlet of Bethnal Green, which subsequently became a Parish, then a Metropolitan Borough before merging with neighbouring areas to become the north-western part of the new London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Economic focus shifted from mainstream farming produce for the City of London – through highly perishable goods production, weaving, dock and building work and light industry – to a high proportion of commuters to city businesses, public sector/care sector roles, construction, courier businesses and home-working digital and creative industries.