To the west of this area is Hackney town’s much acclaimed high street where the age-old Hackney Empire has entertained locals since the beginning of the twentieth century. Today, locals and tourists can also check out the Hackney Picturehouse as well as numerous coffee shops and trendy bars which line the highstreet. The Overground line bisects the area, with both Hackney Central and Homerton serving every corner of this locale. South of the railway, the housing scene is a mix of early Victorian terraces, council blocks like Lennox house, and a sprinkling of modern developments. North of the railway, St John’s at Hackney is a late 18th century parish church which was renovated to become one of the coolest and most distinctive concert spaces in London. Nearby Homerton Hospital has both an accident and emergency and a large maternity unit. City Academy is located in the area and is rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

Whilst Hackney and Hommerton have not always enjoyed the best reputation, this was by no means always the case. Rather, the opposite is true; prior to the industrial revolution this was a retreat for the nobility and a number of prominent houses and their estates dominated the scenery. Old money was replaced by new money in the 18th century as merchants, including a substantial Jewish community, settled in a small hamlet which emerged around Mare Street. During the Victorian era Hackney would start to develop its reputation as one of the capital’s less desirable neighbourhoods. But even still, this particular locale avoided an ill reputation until the turn of the previous century when increasing urbanisation and the building of overcrowded social housing saw terrible living conditions become rife. However, since the eighties and nineties, an increasing amount of effort has been spent on regeneration and community, gradually changing the image that the locale has presented.

Laura Bates, the mastermind behind the project Everyday Sexism – a blog where thousands of individuals can share their stories of discrimination and inequality – grew up in Hackney after moving here with her parents from Oxford.

Hackney’s first hospital was built in the 13th century and was based on Kingsland Road. At the time, it was known as Kingsland Leper Hospital, one of ten hospitals treating leprosy. The current local hospital for the area is Homerton University, a ten minute walk to the west of Kingston Road. Some say the old smallpox hospital was perhaps the reason for the outflow of originally wealthy locals at the end of the 19th century.

It is true that whilst the Victoria and Queen Elizabeth parks are within walking distance of this locale, the streets themselves are not as tree-lined as some others in the borough. Another pitfall is the lack of tube stops, with residents having to rely on the overground and plethora of bus routes to connect to nearby transport hubs like Stratford and Liverpool Street.

Hackney Council is promoting the conversion of derelict sites and unused spaces such as garages into residential space to alleviate the pressure on housing. One such example - The Stack, at the corner of Daley Street and Barnabas Road - is a new building of high specification one, two and three bed apartments. Planning permission was also recently achieved for a mixed use development on Homerton High Street which will include 244 new homes and over 4,000 square feet of space for retail uses and creative industries. Hackney and Homerton are changing fast, leaving behind the downtrodden reputation that haunted them in the previously.