With Stamford Hill to the north and Dalston to the south, this neighbourhood area incorporates the bustling residential heart of Stoke Newington. Despite being located just a few miles from the centre of London, the area has a tight-knit, suburban village feel, yet maintains London’s distinctive multiculturalism. The housing is made up almost entirely of Victorian terraces which line wide, leafy streets, reminiscent of nearby Islington, but the busy and diverse shopping parades stand it apart from its neighbour.

Stoke Newington High Street along the eastern border provides plenty of amenities, great varied nightlife destinations, numerous community-centred pubs, cafes, and many transport hubs, such as Stoke Newington station, which provides Overground services throughout the city. Clissold Park and Abney Park give the area a unique abundance of green space, and Clissold in particular offers activities centred around the Stoke Newington community, such as swimming pools, cafes and playgrounds. Coupled with the nearby schools and easy travel to the city’s universities, these factors make Stoke Newington incredibly desirable for families and students alike.

The name Stoke Newington derives from the Saxon for ‘new town in the wood’ and given its proximity to the River Lea, the area has been lightly inhabited since at least the Neolithic period. Up until the 17th century, most of Stoke Newington was owned by St Paul’s Cathedral, operating as a pitstop for those journeying north along the Cambridge Road (now Stoke Newington High Street). After passing through a number of hands over centuries and attracting a great number of Quakers throughout the years, the area was sold in parcels to developers who transformed it from a separate village into part of the mass industrial development of London in the early 19th century. The building of the Abney Park Cemetery on unconsecrated ground in 1840 attracted a great number of Nonconformists, and the opening of Stoke Newington station in 1872 prompted the mass construction of residential and commercial buildings. The area was popular with those fleeing Nazi persecution throughout Europe in the 1930s and onwards through the Second World War, and Stoke Newington quickly garnered a reputation as a politically and artistically radical part of town, which seems to remain today.

To the north of the area sits Defoe Road, named after the famous author Daniel Defoe (1661-1731), who lived in a house on the site of what’s now 95 Stoke Newington Church Street. Although he is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, Defoe was a prolific writer and is known to have published over 500 books in his lifetime, as well as being a pioneer of supernatural writing and economic journalism.

One of the Magnificent Seven grand cemeteries built in the 19th century to alleviate overcrowding in London’s burial grounds, Abney Park is one of the foremost burial grounds for dissenters due to its location on non-consecrated land. Its impressive Egyptian Revival entrance and its non-denominational chapel are both considered to be of great architectural importance, and up until the year 2000 almost 200,000 burials had taken place in the cemetery, including a huge number of anti-slavery campaigners.

The brilliant Stoke Newington Town Hall is a Grade-II listed Art Deco masterpiece designed by J. Reginald Truelove in the 1930s. In 2010 the building was refurbished and returned to its former glory after decades of neglect, winning the Wood Award for the important conservation work.

Despite its convenient Overground link, the area is still limited when it comes to transport, which means that those who live in the area generally have to work and socialise locally. However, this is one of the reasons why local independent and community shops flourish. As one barman mentioned, “it’s a local crowd, with regulars of differing ages who all feel like they have a stake in their immediate environment and a great desire to support it with their custom.” He also suggested that the poor transport links mean people cycle, which keeps pollution down and health up.

Despite the highly regarded £5m refurbishment to much of Stoke Newington Town Hall, it is estimated that a further £10m will be needed to maintain the entire building. The council have therefore decided to rent parts of the completed building out as workspaces, studios, and even housing while it attempts to raise the money it needs! Meanwhile there are a number of private development projects underway in the neighbourhoods surrounding this postcode. The Kings Crescent project on Green Lanes, to the east of this postcode, is having a large impact on the area. The first phase was completed in 2017, providing 273 homes, and the following two phases will be completed by 2023, providing 393 homes and a new community centre.