AREA GUIDE

Victorian and Edwardian buildings coalesce with former industrial warehouses covered top to toe in street art, rivalling the oise stone walls of Belleville, Paris for aesthetic edginess. From the boundaries of Victoria Park to the Lee Navigation Canal, you’ll find wall-to-wall art collectives, with creative activity taking place in every nook and cranny. The year is capped each summer with the Hackney WickED festival, east London’s most dynamic arts festival which in 2019 featured 90 artists and 75 events across 55 venues.

Canal knowledge

The bars and breweries along the riverside provide plenty of stimulation and sustenance, as does the view. Drop into the industrial-chic setting of the Crate mini-brewery for a craft beer and a stone-baked pizza early in the evening. Catch some live rap at Grow and turntablists at No.90, or hit the Alfred Le Roy for mixologists and spiced winter whiskey warmers. The E9 riverside has everything you need for a memorable night on the tiles.

Cometh the Stour, cometh the Space

At the heart of the Fish Island community is the Stour Space Cafe and Bar, a renovated warehouse featuring a cooperative of companies working towards a brighter future. The cafe itself serves speciality grade coffee and seasonally inspired bites, best taken on the terrace by the River Lea canal overlooking the London Stadium. The Stour Space cafe offers vegetarian, vegan and plant-based alternatives as well as a Celtic Bakery. For a change of scene, the long-established Hackney Pearl around the corner provides coffee, cocktails and eclectic dishes. 

Where East Meets West

E9 has undergone rapid change in recent years, precipitated by London 2012 which put the area on the map. Remnants of a truly remarkable Olympics are still in abundance, though few can compete with the Olympic Stadium, the multipurpose arena that was the centre of the world for an unforgettable month seven summers ago. The Olympic Stadium is now the London Stadium, the new home of West Ham United, guaranteeing you Premier League action once a fortnight for eight glorious months of the year.

Park and ride…
The Slide

Bifurcated by the canal are two areas of open space that epitomise old and new London; Victoria Park and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The former has won multiple Green Flags and is known as the People’s Park, the latter was built for the Paralympics and is full of family activities and attractions, like the towering ArcelorMittal Orbit for great views, and The Slide for thill rides. The Wetlands Walk, the Wick Woodland and Hackney Marshes are all nearby and within walking distance offering outstanding natural beauty.

Stratford Upon (shopping) Heaven

A mere 17 minutes walk away is the world-class shopping experience of Westfield Stratford City. Almost every major retail business under the sun is under its roof, from Apple to Zara, via Ikea. Kids activities and entertainment, restaurants and bars, up to 30 films shown a week at the Vue Cinema, craft beer and bowling… with 250 stores and 75 places to eat and drink, Westfield Stratford City provides for your earthly needs with many heavenly delights thrown into the bargain. Music, comedy and entertainment are also on show at the nearby Copper Box Arena.

2-STEP ON YOUR DOORSTEP

Hackney is prodigious for grime and 2-step garage where the genres originated, with dedicated nights at Grow in the heartland of UK hip hop. Oslo and the Moth Club, both near Hackney Central, host the hottest gigs, and if it’s theatre you’re after then look no further than the Hackney Empire, a celebrated, fin de siècle music hall that’s one of the gems of historic Mare Street.