River Lea in the context of "County Borough of West Ham"

Middlesex (/ˈmɪdəlsɛks/ ; abbreviation: Middx) was one of the counties of England until it was abolished in 1965. The county boundaries largely followed three rivers: the Thames in the south, the Lea to the east and the Colne to the west, with a line of hills forming its northern boundary with Hertfordshire. The former area of Middlesex now lies almost entirely in the ceremonial county of Greater London, with smaller parts in the counties of Hertfordshire and Surrey. The county was the second smallest of the historic counties of England, after Rutland.

The name of the county derives from its origin as a homeland for the Middle Saxons in the early Middle Ages, with the county subsequently part of that territory in the ninth or tenth century. The City of London, formerly part of the county, became a self governing county corporate in the twelfth century; the City was still able to exert influence as the sheriffs of London maintained their jurisdiction in Middlesex, though the county otherwise remained separate. To the east of the City, the Tower Division (or Tower Hamlets) had considerable autonomy under its own Lord Lieutenant. To the west, precincts around Westminster and Charing Cross became built up.

Essex (/ˈɛsɪks/ ESS-iks) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the south, Greater London to the south-west, and Hertfordshire to the west. The largest settlement is Southend-on-Sea.

The county has an area of 3,670 km (1,420 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 1,929,610 in 2024. The south of the county is densely populated, and includes Southend-on-Sea in the south-east and Basildon in the south-centre. The centre and north of the county is more rural, and its principal settlements include Chelmsford in the centre and Colchester in the north-east. The districts of Chelmsford, Colchester and Southend hold city status. For local government purposes Essex comprises a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and two unitary authority areas: Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea. The county historically included north-east Greater London, the River Lea forming its western border.

Leyton (/ˈleɪtən/ LAY-tən) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River Lea, to the west. The area includes New Spitalfields Market, Leyton Orient Football Club, as well as part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The town consists largely of terraced houses built between 1870 and 1910, interspersed with some modern housing estates. It is 6.2 miles (10 km) north-east of Charing Cross.

It was historically part of the ancient parish of Leyton St Mary in the Becontree hundred and part of the ancient county of Essex. The town expanded rapidly in the late 19th century, forming part of the conurbation of London and becoming a suburb, similar to much of south-west Essex. It became part of the Metropolitan Police District in 1839 and has been part of the London postal district since its inception in 1856. The parish became an urban district in 1894 and gained municipal borough status in 1926. In 1965, it merged with the neighbouring municipal boroughs of Walthamstow and Chingford to form the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local government district of Greater London.

The London Borough of Newham (/ˈnjuːəm/ ) is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the same act. The name Newham reflects its creation and combines the compass points of the old borough names. It is 5 miles (8 km) east of the City of London and north of the River Thames (the Woolwich Ferry and Woolwich foot tunnel providing the only crossings to the south within the borough). Newham is bounded by the River Lea to its west and the North Circular Road to its east.

Situated in the Inner London part of East London, Newham has a population of 387,576, which is the third highest of the London boroughs. It is the 25th most populous district in England. The local authority is Newham London Borough Council.

The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have universally accepted boundaries on its northern and eastern sides, though the River Lea is sometimes seen as the easternmost boundary. Parts of it may be regarded as lying within Central London (though that term too has no precise definition). The term "East of Aldgate Pump" is sometimes used as a synonym for the area.

The East End began to emerge in the Middle Ages with initially slow urban growth outside the eastern walls, which later accelerated, especially in the 19th century, to absorb pre-existing settlements. The first known written record of the East End as a distinct entity, as opposed to its component parts, comes from John Strype's 1720 Survey of London, which describes London as consisting of four parts: the City of London, Westminster, Southwark, and "That Part beyond the Tower". The relevance of Strype's reference to the Tower was more than geographical. The East End was the urbanised part of an administrative area called the Tower Division, which had owed military service to the Tower of London since time immemorial. Later, as London grew further, the fully urbanised Tower Division became a byword for wider East London, before East London grew further still, east of the River Lea and into Essex.

The Tower Division was a liberty in the ancient county of Middlesex, England. It was also known as the Tower Hamlets, and took its name from the military obligations owed to the Constable of the Tower of London. The term 'Hamlets' probably referred to territorial sub-divisions of the parish of Stepney – and its daughter parishes – rather than to the usual meaning of a small village.

In contemporary terms, the Liberty covered inner East London, the area now administered by the eponymous modern London Borough of Tower Hamlets together with most of the modern London Borough of Hackney (Shoreditch and Hackney proper). The Liberty was seen as synonymous with East London until East London extended further, east of the Lea and into Essex.

The Bow porcelain factory (active c. 1747–64 and closed in 1776) was an emulative rival of the Chelsea porcelain factory in the manufacture of early soft-paste porcelain in Great Britain. The two London factories were the first in England. It was originally located near Bow, in what is now the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, but by 1749 it had moved to "New Canton", sited east of the River Lea, and then in Essex, now in the London Borough of Newham.

Designs imitated imported Chinese and Japanese porcelains and the wares being produced at Chelsea, at the other end of London. From about 1753, Meissen figures were copied, both directly and indirectly through Chelsea. Quality was notoriously uneven; the warm, creamy body of Bow porcelains is glassy and the glaze tends towards ivory. The paste included bone ash, and Bow figures were made by pressing the paste into moulds, rather than the slipcasting used at Chelsea. Bow appears to have been the largest English factory of its period. After about 1760, quality declined, as more English factories opened, and the dependence on Chelsea models increased, perhaps aided by an influx of Chelsea workers after 1763, as production there decreased.

The Lower Lea Valley is the southern end of the Lea Valley which surrounds the River Lea in eastern Greater London. It is part of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area and was the location of the 2012 Summer Olympics.