Welcome to London x London’s Hackney Guide: your guide to the best bars, restaurants and things to do in this East London neighbourhood.
Hackney sits at the heart of the East End, bordered by Islington to the west and Tower Hamlets to the south, with Victoria Park and Hackney Marshes running along its eastern edge.
Hackney is the East End borough that has never quite settled down, and that restlessness is exactly what makes it worth visiting.
From marshland and farms to a global name for East London creativity, this is a place that keeps reinventing itself without losing its edge.
Hackney sits at the heart of the East End, though it wasn’t always the lively, creative place it is today. For centuries it was a patchwork of small hamlets and farmland supplying food to the City of London, its marshes and woodland later drawing Medieval royals in search of tranquil countryside close to the capital.
That rural past is long gone, but Hackney has held onto a strong community feel even as it has grown into one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Its food scene is one of the capital’s best, its nightlife rarely lets up, and its patchwork of markets, breweries and independent shops make it one of the more interesting corners of the city to explore on foot.
Scrappy, creative and unmistakably East End
