Living in Hackney Central

Hackney Central is the civic heart of the borough. Mare Street runs through it past the art deco town hall and the Hackney Empire, an ornate Edwardian music hall that still stages everything from comedy to pantomime, and the streets around the station are busy with shops, markets, cafés and a steady flow of buses.

Much of what made Hackney fashionable sits within a short walk. London Fields, with its heated outdoor lido, is to the south-west, and Broadway Market, on its southern edge, is packed on Saturdays with food stalls and shoppers. The railway arches between Hackney Central and London Fields hold bars, bakeries, workshops and breweries, and Well Street and Chatsworth Road offer quieter, more local versions of the same mix. Victoria Park and Hackney Downs are close.

There is no tube, but two Overground stations sit almost next to each other. Hackney Downs has trains to Liverpool Street in around ten minutes, while Hackney Central is on the east–west line from Stratford to Highbury, Camden and Richmond. The combination works well for the City, Shoreditch and Stratford, less well for the West End, which usually needs a change.

The housing includes Victorian terraces, mostly converted into flats, large post-war estates, warehouse and factory conversions and newer blocks near the stations. Rents rose sharply in the last decade as the area became a byword for creative east London, and long-standing communities — including large Caribbean, Turkish and African populations — have felt that pressure. Hackney Central suits people who want food, nightlife, markets and parks close at hand and are happy with Overground commuting, and who choose their street with care, since character and noise levels change quickly from one block to the next.