Crime and Safety in Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
The most common crimes in Spitalfields are violence and sexual offences, with 382 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 12. This is 9% lower than 2025's figure of 418 offences and a difference of 1.28 from 2025's crime rate of 13. Spitalfields's least common crimes are possession of weapons, with 13 offences recorded in 2026, an increase of 18% from 2025's figure of 11 crimes.
Spitalfields 2026 Crime Scorecard
15% lower, borough crime rate
London
18% lower, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of April 2026, the crime rate in Tower Hamlets is 15% lower than London and 18% lower than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
Tower Hamlets Crime Rate Over Time
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| Tower Hamlets | |
| London |
Spitalfields Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Spitalfields represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
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Hover over a point to see a breakdown of crime types recorded at that location. You can also filter by individual crime types, or use a combinations of offences to visualise the data you need.
Introduction to Spitalfields's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Spitalfields up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Spitalfields's 14 postcodes using three area sizes for comparison:
- Within a Five-Minute Walk
- Within a Ten-Minute Walk
- Within a Fifteen-Minute Walk
Individual crime risk scores and index figures are for the 12-month period ending April 2026 unless otherwise stated.
Crime Risk Scores
Spitalfields • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Spitalfields has a crime risk score of 486. This is based on analysis of 14 nearby areas within Spitalfields, with "most" referring to roughly two thirds of the nearby locations.
Crime risk scores are on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and consider the severity of the crimes involved, as determined by sentencing guidelines. A score of 1 represents the lowest risk, and 1,000 the highest risk. This approach ensures that - unlike overall crime rate figures - bicycle theft is not given the same importance in Spitalfields's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Spitalfields, crime risk scores are typically around 486, while in Tower Hamlets they are average 651.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 518 (731 for Tower Hamlets), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 560 (Tower Hamlets 783).
Trends in Crime Risk
Spitalfields
Calculated via Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess, the Seasonality Adjusted line represents the original data with seasonality subtracted, and the Trend line has been plotted unadjusted. Overall trend direction has been identified using the Mann-Kendall trend test, and rate calculated from the slope of the best-fit line identified from linear regression.
The 10-year trend indicates a decrease of 33% in Spitalfields's crime risk score. This is potentially a strong signal of how the crime risk is evolving. Cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Spitalfields's crime risk score is up by 19%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, analysis may offer further insight when combined with the checks mentioned above.
Over the last year, Spitalfields's crime risk score has shown a downward trend of approximately 6%, indicating that the risk profile is going down. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Spitalfields
The CrimeRate Index shows how crime rates compare against the national average.
1.0 equals the average
2.0 is double
3.0 triple
0.5 is half and
0.25 a quarter.
Highest Crime Rates
Spitalfields • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Excluding other crime and other theft because their geographic location is often not relevant, anti-social behaviour as its definition is too wide, and bicycle theft for its specificity.
Theft From the Person offences have a crime rate of 7.93 reports per 1,000 people in Spitalfields, which is 5.12 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 263 crime reports logged by Metropolitan Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, Metropolitan Police recorded 62 reports of Robbery in Spitalfields, resulting in a crime rate of 1.85 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 1.57.
The crime rate for Shoplifting is 1.30 times the national average at 9.24 reports per 1,000. This is from 305 crime reports reported to Metropolitan Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Spitalfields
Excluding other crime and other theft, anti-social behaviour, and bicycle theft, and calculated with the same STL method described in Trends in Crime Risk, using CrimeRate Index figures to identify crime types that are trending above or below the national average, and the analysis timeframe limited to the last three years.
Public Order offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.42 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Public Order CrimeRate Index was 0.47 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 11% over this timeframe.
Shoplifting offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.86 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Shoplifting CrimeRate Index was 0.66 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 30% over this timeframe.
Burglary offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.21 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Burglary CrimeRate Index was 0.77 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 57% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Spitalfields
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Robbery offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 2.00 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Robbery CrimeRate Index was 1.44 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 39% over this timeframe.
Theft From the Person offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 6.50 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Theft From the Person CrimeRate Index was 5.38 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 21% over this timeframe.
Violence and Sexual Offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.34 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Violence and Sexual Offences CrimeRate Index was 0.35 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 2.9% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Spitalfields • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Spitalfields | Tower Hamlets | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 560 | 16.86 | 1.19 | 11,045 | 20.37 | 1.44 | 235,985 | 21.68 | 1.53 |
| Bicycle Theft | 64 | 1.90 | 2.60 | 998 | 1.83 | 2.51 | 13,695 | 1.26 | 1.73 |
| Burglary | 123 | 3.67 | 1.17 | 2,348 | 4.32 | 1.38 | 47,359 | 4.34 | 1.39 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 81 | 2.46 | 0.39 | 2,038 | 3.75 | 0.60 | 54,098 | 4.99 | 0.79 |
| Drugs | 101 | 3.05 | 0.99 | 2,887 | 5.33 | 1.72 | 53,167 | 4.87 | 1.58 |
| Other Crime | 14 | 0.42 | 0.27 | 487 | 0.88 | 0.48 | 13,008 | 1.19 | 0.64 |
| Other Theft | 328 | 9.86 | 1.73 | 3,938 | 7.25 | 1.27 | 97,452 | 8.97 | 1.58 |
| Possession of Weapons | 13 | 0.39 | 0.78 | 276 | 0.50 | 0.59 | 6,443 | 0.60 | 0.71 |
| Public Order | 145 | 4.37 | 0.75 | 2,774 | 5.10 | 0.88 | 60,049 | 5.52 | 0.95 |
| Robbery | 62 | 1.85 | 1.57 | 1,254 | 2.30 | 1.95 | 30,804 | 2.83 | 2.40 |
| Shoplifting | 305 | 9.24 | 1.30 | 3,417 | 6.30 | 0.88 | 87,976 | 8.09 | 1.13 |
| Theft From the Person | 263 | 7.93 | 5.12 | 2,766 | 5.10 | 3.29 | 77,160 | 7.11 | 4.59 |
| Vehicle Crime | 75 | 2.27 | 0.53 | 2,596 | 4.78 | 1.11 | 81,755 | 7.50 | 1.74 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 382 | 11.55 | 0.38 | 11,709 | 21.59 | 0.71 | 273,434 | 25.12 | 0.83 |
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Total Crime by Year
Spitalfields | Tower Hamlets | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 1,956 | 58.96 | 0.83 | 37,488 | 69.03 | 0.96 | 896,400 | 82.39 | 1.14 |
| 2025 | 2,039 | 65.30 | 0.89 | 35,452 | 65.28 | 0.88 | 896,961 | 83.23 | 1.12 |
| 2024 | 2,250 | 74.58 | 1.01 | 35,635 | 66.28 | 0.88 | 900,986 | 84.38 | 1.12 |
| 2023 | 2,023 | 67.82 | 0.87 | 32,620 | 60.85 | 0.77 | 835,471 | 78.98 | 1.00 |
| 2022 | 1,518 | 50.44 | 0.67 | 32,196 | 60.98 | 0.79 | 795,646 | 75.77 | 0.99 |
| 2021 | 1,060 | 33.44 | 0.50 | 30,170 | 57.64 | 0.84 | 727,983 | 69.09 | 1.01 |
| 2020 | 1,610 | 53.96 | 0.74 | 31,037 | 59.21 | 0.80 | 819,467 | 77.66 | 1.05 |
| 2019 | 1,853 | 63.57 | 0.85 | 33,866 | 64.76 | 0.85 | 849,310 | 80.70 | 1.06 |
| 2018 | 1,577 | 53.66 | 0.77 | 31,349 | 60.39 | 0.85 | 810,063 | 77.08 | 1.08 |
| 2017 | 1,470 | 51.72 | 0.82 | 30,223 | 59.43 | 0.93 | 758,160 | 72.41 | 1.13 |
| 2016 | 427 | 15.25 | 0.83 | 8,887 | 17.61 | 0.92 | 234,565 | 22.42 | 1.18 |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Crime in Tower Hamlets