Within spitting distance of the gleaming towers of the City of London and the blocks of luxury flats built around Aldgate, Whitechapel nevertheless remains one of the poorest and most deprived areas in the capital.

But now the borough council, Tower Hamlets, has a plan to bring new jobs and prosperity to the area. This plan is called The Whitechapel Vision.

It envisages 3,500 new homes by 2025 along with seven new public squares and open spaces and a “green spine” connecting Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road.

The council is moving the town hall to the landmark listed former Royal London Hospital building in Whitechapel Road. A £300 million Life Sciences campus is planned by Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust that will pioneer new treatments.

The arrival of the Elizabeth line, now delayed, possibly until autumn next year, will transform Whitechapel station into a transport hub with two new entrances.

More than almost any other area of London, Whitechapel has been moulded by waves of immigration. In the 17th century Huguenot silk weavers from France settled there.

In the 19th century the Irish came to escape the famine and the Jews arrived, fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe. Now Whitechapel has a large Bengali community, many of whom work in the garment industry and shop in the thriving market along Whitechapel Road.

(Daniel Lynch)

The area also has a bloodcurdling history stretching from Jack the Ripper, the notorious Victorian serial killer who murdered five prostitutes in 1888, horribly mutilating four of them, to gangland boss Ronnie Kray who shot dead George Cornell, an associate of the rival Richardson gang, in the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel Road in 1966.

Whitechapel is diverse but changing and moving in the right direction, according to estate agent Simon Boulton from the local branch of Knight Frank. He says the arrival of Crossrail next year will make it one of the best-connected areas in east London.

He says it’s an interesting place to live, with property prices cheaper than in nearby Shoreditch or Clerkenwell.

Three miles from central London, Whitechapel has Shoreditch to the north-west; Bethnal Green to the north and Wapping and Shadwell to the south.

The property scene

Fine Georgian houses, warehouse conversions and new flats find their place among Whitechapel’s estates of social housing. Many early 18th-century houses were rescued and restored by The Spitalfields Trust which formed in 1976 with an act of defiance preventing the demolition of two Georgian houses in Elder Street.

Four Georgian houses are currently for sale. A five-bedroom double-fronted home with a modern dual-height rear extension and a living wall is £4.2 million in White’s Row; a four-bedroom Huguenot weavers house in Fournier Street is £2.6 million; interior decorator David Carter’s house in Mile End Road is for sale at £2 million and paint specialist Pedro da Costa Felgueiras has restored a three-bedroom house in Varden Street, on the market at £1.55 million.

New-build homes

At Whitechapel Estate, between Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road, Londonewcastle plans to build 335 flats in 12 buildings, five designed by starchitect David Adjaye, the others by PLP with landscaping by Tom Stuart-Smith. Call 020 7534 1888.

Housing association L&Q and developer Mount Anvil plan 647 studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, including 96 rental and 54 for shared ownership, at the Silk District on an island plot south of Whitechapel Road, which will be ready between 2020 and 2023.

Off-plan sales start at £502,000 for a studio, £517,000 for a one-bedroom flat, £680,000 for a two-bedroom flat and £825,000 for a three-bedroom flat. Call 020 7776 1800.

White + Green in Vallance Road by Higgins Homes has 144 studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, with 37 aimed at first-time buyers, including 12 for shared ownership. The scheme has shops, restaurants and a new piazza.

Completions start next May and off-plan sales start at £535,000 for a one-bedroom flat, £630,000 for two bedrooms and £795,000 for a three-bedroom flat. Call 020 8003 1517.

London Square Spitalfields offers 63 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, all with private outside space; 49 are for private sale, with 14 for shared ownership and social rent. The scheme is built around a communal garden in Commercial Street.

From £730,000 for a one-bedroom flat, with the show home available to move into before Christmas; £950,000 for a two-bedroom flat and £1,175,000 for a three-bedroom flat.

Three ground-floor flats with their own front doors start at £995,000 for a two-bedroom home and £1,175,000 for a three-bedroom flat. First residents move in next month, with completion next summer (0333 666 0110).

At the Aldgate end of Whitechapel are Berkeley’s Goodman’s Fields and Barratt’s Aldgate Place. Goodman’s Fields comprises 1,053 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and penthouses in medium-rise blocks and three towers of 17-22 storeys.

Only two flats remain, both in 21-storey Neroli House: a studio for £762,500 and a three-bedroom flat for £2 million. Call 020 3504 5370.

Aldgate Place has 463 studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom flats in six blocks with a hotel and ground-floor space for cafés and restaurants. The second phase will offer 159 flats in a 27-storey tower. Call 08444 171876.

First-time buyer/shared ownership homes

Housing association Newlon has 47 one- and two-bedroom flats at six-storey Pimento in Goodman’s Fields, from £160,000 to £230,000 for a 25 per cent share of homes worth £640,000 to £920,000. Call 0800 0582544. Help to Buy is available at White + Green (as before).

Renting

Proximity to the City, plenty of new flats and nearby Brick Lane’s night-time economy and entertainment scene bring in renters priced out of Shoreditch. Studios and one-bedroom flats start at about £1,300 a month and local rents range widely, up to a new three-bedroom penthouse in Leman Street at £8,623 a month.

Transport

Even before the arrival of Crossrail, Whitechapel is well-connected. The Tube station is on the District and Hammersmith & City lines and there are Overground trains to Canada Water, one stop away on the DLR from Canary Wharf.

There are two useful commuter buses — the No 25 goes to Oxford Circus via Cheapside and Holborn and the No 205 goes to Paddington via King’s Cross and Baker Street. Whitechapel is in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 is £1,364.

Staying power

People who buy a Huguenot weavers house in the Brick Lane and Fournier Street conservation area see these houses as a home for life.

Postcode

Whitechapel is in the E1 postcode which also includes most of Aldgate and stretches as far as Spitalfields, Shoreditch, and parts of Stepney and Mile End.

Best road

Anywhere in the Brick Lane and Fournier Street conservation area in streets such as Fournier Street itself, Elder Street, Princelet Street and Wilkes Street.

There are also pockets of early Georgian houses in the streets south of Whitechapel Road such as Sidney Square, Varden Street, Cavell Street, New Road and Turner Street.

Among the new-build flats Simon Boulton from the local branch of Knight Frank describes Goodman’s Fields as the game changer for the Aldgate area of Whitechapel.

Up and coming

The best value in Whitechapel are “right-to-buy” flats in any well-managed blocks of social housing.

NEIGHBOURHOODS