Editing Stepney (section)

{{Short description|Area of London, England}}
{{Other uses}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2025}}{{Use British English|date=February 2021}}{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox UK place
| country                   = England
| region                    = London
| official_name             = Stepney
| coordinates               = {{coord|51.5152|-0.0462|display=inline,title}}
| post_town                 = LONDON
| postcode_area             = E
| postcode_district         = E1, E14
| london_borough            = Tower Hamlets
| dial_code                 = 020
| os_grid_reference         = TQ355814
| constituency_westminster  = [[Bethnal Green and Stepney]]
| population                = 16,238
| population_ref            = (2011 census. St Dunstan's and Stepney Green Ward)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=13689091&c=Stepney+Green&d=14&e=62&g=6338245&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&o=362&m=0&r=1&s=1476697229647&enc=1|title=Tower Hamlets Ward population 2011|access-date=17 October 2016|publisher=Office for National Statistics|work=Neighbourhood Statistics}}</ref>
| static_image_name         = {{Photomontage
| photo1a = St. Dunstan's Church, Stepney, East London - geograph.org.uk - 608397.jpg
| photo1b = Stepney Green Station.jpg
| photo2a = Half Moon, Stepney, E1 (3171916542).jpg
| photo2b = Genesis, Stepney, E1 (14210132458).jpg
| photo3a = Stepney Green - geograph.org.uk - 786480.jpg
| photo3b = Docklands Buses E218 & E217 on Route 135, Stepney Arbour Square (17451484524).jpg
| color=transparent
| spacing=1
| border=0
| size = 250}}
| static_image_caption      = Clockwise from top left: St. Dunstan's Church; Stepney Green tube station; Genesis cinema; route 135 at Arbour Square; Stepney Green; the Half Moon pub.
| charingX_distance_mi      = 3.6
| charingX_direction        = WSW
}}
'''Stepney''' is an area in the [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets]] in the [[East End]] of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to a much larger manor and parish, which covered most of the inner East End.

[[Stepney Green]] is a remnant of a larger area of Common Land formerly known as Mile End Green.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp7-13|title=Stepney: Communications &#124; British History Online|website=british-history.ac.uk|access-date=18 September 2022}}</ref>

The area was built up rapidly during the 19th century, mainly to accommodate immigrant workers and poor families displaced from London. It developed a reputation for poverty, overcrowding, violence and political dissent.<ref name=London>{{cite book|author1=Christopher Hibbert|author2=Ben Weinreb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wN_H-__MBpYC&pg=PA877|title=The London Encyclopaedia|page=877|publisher=Pan Macmillan|date=2008|isbn=978-1-4050-4924-5|access-date=20 May 2010}}</ref> It was severely damaged during [[the Blitz]], with over a third of housing destroyed; and then, in the 1960s, [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|slum clearance]] and development replaced most residential streets with [[tower block]]s and modern housing estates. Some [[Georgian architecture]] and [[Victorian era]] terraced housing remain such as [[Arbour Square]], the eastern side of Stepney Green, and the streets around Matlock Street.<ref name=London/><ref name=timeout>{{cite web|url=https://www.timeout.com/london/property/features/3397/Hot_neighbourhoods-Stepney_E1.html|title=Hot neighbourhoods: Stepney, E1 – Time Out London|work=Time Out|access-date=19 May 2010|archive-date=21 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021131507/https://www.timeout.com/london/property/features/3397/hot_neighbourhoods-stepney_e1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>