Hackney
The east London borough of Hackney has seen 30 years of huge change – transforming Shoreditch and Hackney Wick’s warehouses and workshops into creative studios, galleries, cafes and clubs.
Kingsland Road, which follows a Roman route, splits the borough top to bottom. Head south from Stoke Newington and you’ll pass Dalston’s busy Ridley Road market, and end in Shoreditch – known for its furniture trade before it was known for its nightlife.
Hackney was once recognised for its open expanses, with Samuel Pepys noting the “good cherries” on a visit in 1664. But as the railways expanded in the 19th century, so did the area’s population and the need for housing.
Green spaces remain – London Fields, Clissold Park and Hackney Marshes – while Homerton has one of London’s last remaining Tudor homes, Sutton House, built in 1535.
More recently, Diane Abbott, the UK’s first Black woman MP, was elected in Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1987.
Hackney Wick is home to many riverside bars and restaurants along the River Lea canal
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Preserving a London Fields squat in the 1990s
Tom Hunter’s detailed model of his Hackney neighbourhood helped save it from demolition
How Asian ayahs and amahs arrived in London
These nannies were some of the first Asian women to visit London in the 18th century
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