LONDON -- It was called "outcast London" for its squalid slums in Victorian times, has the dubious reputation as the haunt of Jack the Ripper, and one of Britain's most polluted rivers runs through its long-derelict shipyards and warehouses.
It's no wonder that for a long time, east London has been all but ignored by tourists who stick to the West End, the home of blockbuster musicals, royal palaces, Harrods and Oxford Street.
