An area within which the Lieutenant of the Tower of London could muster a militia

The name Tower Hamlets sounds as if it is a modern construct, chosen to bind together a number of former councils into a new one in 1965. In fact the name had been used since 1605 to describe an area within which the Lieutenant of the Tower of London could muster a militia. It continued to be used for administration of justice, and was the name given to the 1832 parliamentary borough. 

T. Travers, London's Boroughs at 50 (2015), 125

Part of the explanation of why it looks the way it does is that it was built in a sunny part of the world.

At a much more down-to-earth level, the Alhambra looks very different from Versailles or Buckingham Palace and, though there are all sorts of complex cultural reasons for this, part of the explanation of why it looks the way it does is that it was built in a sunny part of the world.

R. Irwin, The Alhambra (2004), 127