Borough in London, England
Hackney
Every black cab in Britain is a 'hackney carriage', and the name probably started here, in the village that became London's most talked-about neighbourhood.
Key information
- County
- Greater London
- Nation
- England
- Population
- About 259,000 (2021 Census)
- Area
- About 19 square kilometres
- Known for
- Hackney Marshes, Hackney Empire, Broadway Market, Dalston nightlife, Abney Park Cemetery, creative scenes
- What locals are called
- Hackneyites
- Famous people
- Alan Sugar, Daniel Defoe, Edgar Allan Poe (as a schoolboy), Diane Abbott
About Hackney
The place that gave cabs their name
Hop in a London black cab and you are riding in a 'hackney carriage'. The word is older than the motor car. By the 1600s London's hired horse-drawn coaches were called hackney coaches, and the name is widely thought to come from Hackney itself, then a village just north-east of the city where horses were kept and bred. The place name goes back further still. It is usually explained as Old English for 'Haca's island', a patch of dry ground among the marshy land beside the River Lea. That watery setting shaped the area for centuries. It stayed rural longer than you might think, a retreat for wealthy merchants and courtiers within easy reach of the City.
Tudor houses, a Gothic tower and a poet's schoolboy days
Hackney has some of the oldest buildings in east London. St Augustine's Tower, a bulky early-1500s survivor of the old parish church, still stands on Mare Street. Not far away, Sutton House in Homerton was built in 1535 for Ralph Sadleir, a courtier of Henry VIII. It is now looked after by the National Trust. Stoke Newington, in the north of the borough, collected literary residents. Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, lived on Church Street. A young Edgar Allan Poe went to school there between 1817 and 1820, long before he wrote his tales of horror. The Victorians left Abney Park Cemetery, a wild garden cemetery opened in 1840. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, is buried there.
From plastics to Olympic fortunes
Hackney was a workshop as well as a retreat. Hackney Wick, beside the Lea, filled with factories, and in the 1860s Alexander Parkes's Parkesine, an early plastic, was being made there. The area became a centre of the new plastics trade. Much of that industry faded, and the cheap warehouses were taken over by artists and musicians. The area around Hackney Wick became famous for its studios and street art. Then the 2012 Olympics arrived next door and changed it again. It is also the home turf of Alan Sugar, who was born in Hackney in 1947 and grew up on a council estate in Clapton. He built Amstrad from small beginnings and ended up as Lord Sugar of Clapton.
Britain's Sunday league capital
Hackney Marshes is a football legend. This flat expanse beside the Lea is laid out with dozens of pitches, and on a Sunday morning the place is packed with amateur players, muddy kits and the smell of liniment. Generations of Sunday league players have cut their teeth here. Elsewhere, London Fields Lido is a heated outdoor pool dating from 1932, popular with swimmers in all weathers. Clissold Park in Stoke Newington has a deer enclosure and a pleasant stretch of water. For something grander, the Hackney Empire is a gorgeous Victorian-style theatre designed by the great Frank Matcham and opened in 1901. It has hosted music hall, panto and comedy for well over a century.
Kebabs, pho and Saturday markets
Hackney's food scene is about whoever settled here. Turkish and Kurdish families made Dalston and Stoke Newington famous for their ocakbaşı grills, where the meat is cooked over charcoal in front of you. Kingsland Road is lined with Vietnamese restaurants, so many that it is known as London's Little Vietnam. Ridley Road Market in Dalston is a loud, colourful old-school street market, with stalls selling everything from yams and plantain to fabric. Broadway Market, on Saturdays, has gone the other way: coffee, sourdough and street food, all beside the canal. The Stamford Hill area is home to one of Europe's largest Hasidic Jewish communities, adding another layer of tradition to the borough.
Hackney Diamonds and the hipster legend
By the 2000s Hackney had become shorthand for a certain kind of east London cool: beards, bikes, pop-up bars and warehouse parties. It is a reputation locals love to tease, but the creative energy is real. Dalston's clubs and venues are legendary, and Hackney Wick still hosts hundreds of artists. The borough even lent its name to a Rolling Stones album. Hackney Diamonds, released in 2023, takes its title from London slang for the shards of glass left after a car window is smashed. Diane Abbott, who first became MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1987, was the first Black woman elected to the House of Commons. It is a fitting emblem of a borough that has always been a mixing pot.