Hackney

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Comparisons

Compare Hackney's overall performance against other boroughs

Hackney is highlighted particularly in the relevant indicators listed on the right. In addition, data for all boroughs feature in the indicators below:

Borough profile

The inner London borough of Hackney is located to the north-east of the city, with the southern tip just under a mile north of the River Thames and the borough bounded by Haringey to the north-west, Waltham Forest to the north east, Newham to the east, Tower Hamlets to the south-east, the City of London to the south and Islington to the west. The borough was formed in 1965 from the area of the former metropolitan boroughs of Hackney, Shoreditch and Stoke Newington. Notable areas include Upper and Lower Clapton, Stamford Hill, Dalston and Stoke Newington in the north of the borough and Hoxton and Shoreditch in the south-west To the east is the large open space of the Hackney Marshes and the districts of Hackney Wick and Homerton. It is inner London’s greenest borough, with 3.3 square kms of open space.

From 1931 a programme of slum clearance and transfer to “new towns” under the Abercrombie Plan for London, alongside the relocation of industry, meant that the Borough’s population diverged from the growth pattern of Greater London and underwent a gradual decline, which preceded that of Inner London and Greater London by as much as 40 years. Industrial restructuring throughout the 1970s and 1980s wiped out most of the remaining large firms and the population reached an all-time low of around 180,000 in 1980.

The establishment of new industry (attracted, amongst other reasons, because of the borough’s proximity to the City of London) and the end of this trend of de-urbanization has seen significant population growth in Hackney over the last 10 years, bringing the current population to between 212,000 and 223,000, depending upon the source. With an area of only 7.4 square miles, Hackney is one of the smallest of London’s boroughs and, at 110 persons per hectare, has one of the highest population densities in the capital. This varies across the borough, with the east around Hackney Downs and Hackney Marshes far less populated than Clissold and Stoke Newington in the west.

Despite the fact that prosperity (measured by median average annual residence income) is above the national average, 2007 saw the borough’s average deprivation score rank it as the second most deprived Local Authority in England, second only to Liverpool, and the most deprived borough in London. However, the years immediately prior to the recession saw the proportion of adults receiving out of work benefits fall notably in the borough. Whilst still the highest among London boroughs, by 2009 the gap between Hackney and the second most deprived borough (Barking and Dageham) had almost entirely disappeared.

Some parts of Hackney, such as the area around London Fields, have seen visible gentrification in recent years. With Hackney one of the hosts of the 2012 Olympics and well placed to benefit from regeneration opportunities arising from the East London Extension, the borough is set to see radical change and renewal.

London Borough of Hackney website

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