The London Borough of Hackney is a north east London Borough within Inner London in the UK. Southern and eastern parts of the borough are popularly, but unofficially, regarded as being a part of east London, with northern and western areas regarded to belong to north London. The London Plan, issued by the Greater London Authority, assigns whole boroughs to sub-regions for statutory monitoring, engagement and resource allocation purposes. The latest 2011 iteration of this program assigns Hackney to the 'East' sub-region, whilst the 2008 and 2004 versions assigned the borough to 'North' and 'East' sub-regions respectively.
Hackney is bounded by Islington towards the west, Haringey to the north, Waltham Forest to the north-east, Newham towards the east, Tower Hamlets towards the south-east plus the City of London towards the south-west. It covers a total area of 7.36 square miles. According to population estimates from 2014, the borough features a permanent population of around 263150 inhabitants. A great deal of Hackney retains an inner-city character, but in such locations as Dalston big housing estates have been joined by newly developed gated communities. In South Hackney, near Victoria Park, terraced Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian housing still survives.
Towards the north of the borough are Upper Clapton and Lower Clapton, Stamford Hill and Stoke Newington. Light industries in the area surrounding the River Lea employ more than 3000 staff. Some of the area was utilised for the 2012 Summer Olympics.