Demography
In common with the rest of London, the ethnic make-up of Thamesmead has changed since it was first built. Initially, it was one of the most homogenous estates of its type in London, being predominately white and working class. Being cut off from the tube map and at the very edge of the metropolis may have meant Thamesmead was not first port of call for immigrants arriving in London. The housing selection policy that favoured relatives of existing residents reinforced this aspect.
However, after the fall of Saigon and the American withdrawal from Vietnam in the late 1970s, a small group of Vietnamese refugees built a community in the area. In the 1990s, another ultimately larger wave of emigration from West Africa (predominately Nigeria and Ghana) began, growing to a point where national newspapers talked of advertisements on Nigerian Television describing Thamesmead as a key UK destination. However, the figures below (possibly from the 2000 UK Census) do not seem to support these claims.
News stories described it being the 'fraud capital of the UK' where according to Chatham House, "an entire street in the town where there was evidence of people being involved in fraud at every address." Indicate the difficulty in getting a wholly accurate picture of the residents of Thamesmead.
Thamesmead also adjoins the Thistlebrook travellers site which is situated just inside Abbey Wood.
Ethnicity breakdown:
White British 67%
Black or Black British 20.9%
- Black African 16.2%
- Black Caribbean 4.0%
- Black Other 0.7%
Mixed Race 3.0%
- White and Black Caribbean 1.4%
- White and Black African 0.6%
- White and Asian 0.5%
- Other Mixed 0.6%
Asian or Asian British 5.5%
- Indian 3.6%
- Bangladeshi 0.9%
- Pakistani 0.4%
- Other Asian 0.6%
Chinese or other East Asian 3.4%
- Chinese 2.2%
- Other East Asian 1.2%
Thamesmead Moorings, Ward has the highest Black African population within the Greenwich Council area, approx. 16.2 per cent.
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