Bow () is an area of East London within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is primarily a built-up and mostly residential area and is east of Charing Cross. It was in the traditional county of Middlesex but became part of the County of London following the passing of the Local Government Act 1888. "Bow" is an abbreviation of the medieval name Stratford-at-Bow, in which "Bow" refers to the bowed bridge built here in the early 12th century. Bow contains parts of both Victoria Park and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Old Ford and Fish Island are localities within Bow, but Bromley-by-Bow (historically and officially just "Bromley") immediately to the south, is a separate district. These distinctions have their roots in historic parish boundaries. Bow underwent extensive urban regeneration including the replacement or improvement of council homes, with the impetus given by the staging of the 2012 Olympic Games at nearby Stratford. History Bow formed a part of the medieval parish of Stepney until becoming an independent parish in 1719. The parish vestry then undertook this responsibility until a rising population created the need for the Poplar Board of Works in 1855. This was superseded by the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in 1900 until it was absorbed into the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1965. The council offices in Poplar High Street became Poplar Town Hall on the formation of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in 1900. Bridges Stratforde was first recorded as a settlement in 1177, the name derived from its Old English meaning of paved way to a ford. The ford originally lay on a pre-Roman trackway at Old Ford about to the north, but when the Romans decided on Colchester as the initial capital for their occupation, the road was upgraded to run from the area of London Bridge, as one of the first paved Roman roads in Britain. The 'paved way' is likely to refer to the presence of a stone causeway across the marshes, which formed a part of the crossing. In 1110 Matilda, wife of Henry I, reputedly fell into the water at the ford on her way to Barking Abbey, and consequently ordered a distinctively bow-shaped, three-arched bridge to be built over the River Lea, The like of which had not been seen before. The area became known variously as Stradford of the Bow, Stratford of the Bow, Stratford the Bow,