It's great - I've lived all over London in the last 10 years and the East End is by far my favourite of all my addresses. There's always something jokes going on outside our flat - usually connected to the bunch of kids that hang outside. (they're harmless, but often get into arguments with our downstairs neighbours for being too loud/sweary which are COMEDY to listen to)
"Albert Square" from Eastenders doesn't actually exist - it was set in a sort of fantasy East End market square, but it's almost definitely supposed to be in my neighbourhood. Three streets down from me is a square of terraced houses with a communal garden in the middle called Albert Place which HAS to be at least part of the inspiration. Some kids have scratched "Arthur Fowler. He loved this place" into the bench in the garden.
I wouldn't necessarily say "tight knit" like it used to be. London gets a rep like NYC for being antisocial and lacking in community and it's true of some neighbourhoods I've lived (we've NEVER known our neighbours until now), but it's definitely not as much the case round here. We've got a regular breakfast place we hit up on a Sunday and they knew us by name after 2 visits - that's never happened to me in central London. There's a lot of imports like me (and from further afield obviously... my lady's from Greensboro, NC), but lots of families and businesses have been around for generations. It gives the community a feeling of permanence that a lot of London misses out on.
I think the few decades after the Blitz and before the Docks closed was probably the real golden age of the tight knit community that Eastenders tries to show, but I love it today nonetheless.
Oh, and Donald Trump says my neighbourhood is "no go" because of all the Muslims. The only effect I've noticed is that I get offered cheap hash pretty much every time I walk down Commercial Road.