The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough located in East London; it covers much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar and Bethnal Green. The new authority's unusual name was taken from an alternative title for the Tower Division; the area of south-east Middlesex, focused on (but not limited to) the area of the modern borough, which owed military service to the Tower of London.