In the 13th century, the area was a low lying marsh[4] known as Scadflet,[5] from the Anglo-Saxon fleot, meaning a shallow creek or bay.

Because a spring by a church dedicated to St Chad filled a nearby well,[6] a false etymology changed the name into Chadwelle.

In 1975, archaeologists discovered evidence of a port complex between Ratcliff and Shadwell, that was used throughout Roman occupation of Britain, and being most active in the 3rd century AD.

A water level drop meant that the port was used primarily for the public bath house near St George in the East, which existed from the first to fourth centuries.

[12]: 41 The riverside areas of East London experienced rapid, low quality development, that reached Shadwell in the late 16th century.

[16]: 132 In 1669, Thomas Neale became a local landowner, buying some land reclaimed from the river, and gained Shadwell parish status.

In addition, Neale built 289 homes, a mill, and a market, and also established a waterworks on large ponds left by the draining of the marsh.

The area had been largely undeveloped and he developed the waterfront, with houses behind as a speculation, and in doing so provided fresh water for Shadwell and Wapping.

[4][8][17]: 148  Shadwell's maritime industries were further developed with roperies, tanneries, breweries, wharves, smiths, and numerous taverns, as well as the chapel of St Paul's.

[14] The prosperity in this period has been linked to the road connections into London, which were maintained by wealthy taxpayers from Middlesex, Essex, Kent and Surrey.

[12]: 332–333 A database of UK newspaper adverts,[18] seeking the capture and return of enslaved runaways, known today as Freedom Seekers[19] has identified sisters living and working in Shadwell in the mid-1700s.

In 1758, when they were 19 and 16 years old, parish records confirm that the Barrett family lived in Musick House Court, just opposite St Paul's Church, Shadwell.

"Seamen, watermen and lightermen, coalheavers and shopkeepers, and ropemakers, coopers, carpenters and smiths, lived in small lathe and plaster or weatherboard houses, two storeys and a garret high, with one room on each floor"; the average rent was £2/7/0.

[28][29] The modern area is dominated by the enclosed former dock, Shadwell Basin, whose construction destroyed much of the earlier settlement – by this time degenerated into slums.

[36] In the 19th century, Shadwell was home to a large community of foreign South Asian lascar seamen, working on the sea-lanes to British India.

[41] An 1889 book The Bitter Cry of Outcast London described Ratcliffe, Shadwell and Bermondsey as a "revolting spectacle", a "dark vision", and a "ghastly reality",[42]: 62–63  whilst Charles Dickens' unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood involves a journey to an opium den in Shadwell, which includes the line "Eastward and still eastward through the stale streets he takes his way, until he reaches his destination: a miserable court, specially miserable amongst many such.

Although Shadwell had the advantage of three times the river frontage of Billingsgate and access via train,[a] the fish market was ultimately unsuccessful.

[49][50] In 1936 residents of Shadwell were heavily involved in the Battle of Cable Street which took place nearby, when Oswald Mosley's fascists attempted to march through the East End, in order to intimidate the area's large Jewish population.

[51][52] Workers in Shadwell continued to oppose the British Union of Fascists, and in 1937, Shadwell dockers threatened an unofficial strike after local casual dock labourer Cecil Anthony Hiron was nominated as a BUF candidate in the Stepney Council elections in November; Hiron later withdrew his nomination.

[59] Residents of Bangladeshi origin accounted for 52% of Shadwell's population in the 2011 census, with White British people comprising 20% of the ward.

THCH have produced souvenir booklets containing historical photos of East Enders harvesting hops which are available from Tower Hamlets Community Housing.

[67] In 2009 the Shadwell hops were harvested by the local residents and Brodies Brewery in Leyton used them to create a new beer called "Old Hopper's Brew".

[68] Wilfred Owen's poem "Shadwell Stair", previously alleged to be mysterious, was a straightforward elegy to homosexual soliciting in an area of the London docks once renowned for it, according to Jonathan Cutbill.

[71] The music video of the 1984 song "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat was filmed at St George's Leisure Centre, a municipal swimming baths in Shadwell.