Shadwell is a ward in the borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. Picture lots of red-brick estates, high rises, football cages, markets, allotments, rickety playgrounds, scaffolding, laundry drying on lines and the smell of curry in the air.
A t the time of the 2011 census, 54.8 per cent of Shadwell residents identified themselves as Muslim (higher than any other ward in Tower Hamlets) and 20.6 per cent of Shadwell residents identified themselves as Christian. Residents of Bangladeshi origin accounted for 52 per cent of the population and the three largest ethnic groups in the borough were Bangladeshi, White British and other white. In Tower Hamlets, 53 per cent of children live in poverty. Shadwell boasts the highest rate of child poverty in the country. What does that mean? Essentially, it’s determined by the government, using a number of factors including free school meals, income per household, etc, but since being here, we have seen and understood poverty to being something much wider than financial struggle.
