Living in Hackney

Hackney has become shorthand for creative east London, but it is a large and complex borough with sharp contrasts. It includes Shoreditch and Hoxton on the City fringe, the markets and parks of London Fields and Hackney Central, the bars of Dalston, the canals of Hackney Wick, the independent shops of Stoke Newington, and the large Orthodox Jewish community of Stamford Hill in the north.

The borough has a large share of social housing and some of the highest levels of deprivation in London, alongside rapidly rising rents and house prices. Its population is young and diverse, with long-established Caribbean, African, Turkish, Kurdish and Vietnamese communities, many of whom have seen their neighbourhoods change dramatically in recent decades.

Hackney is famous for having very few Underground stations, and most residents rely on the Overground, which runs north–south through Dalston and Hoxton and east–west through Hackney Central and Hackney Wick, and also connects Hackney Downs, Clapton, Stoke Newington and Rectory Road to Liverpool Street. Buses are heavily used, and the borough has one of the highest rates of cycling in London.

Green space is a real strength. Victoria Park lies on the borough's southern edge, and Hackney Marshes, the Lee Valley, Clissold Park, London Fields, Hackney Downs, Springfield Park and Abney Park are all within the borough. The Regent's Canal and River Lea provide traffic-free routes for walking and cycling. Living well in Hackney mostly comes down to accepting its transport on its own terms: the Overground, a bike and the occasional long bus ride, in exchange for markets, parks and some of the liveliest streets in the city on your doorstep.