Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a north east London Borough within Inner London in the United Kingdom. Southern and eastern parts of the borough are popularly, but unofficially, regarded as being part of east London, with northern and western locations regarded to belong to north London. The London Plan, issued by the Greater London Authority, assigns entire boroughs to sub-regions for statutory monitoring, engagement and resource allocation purposes. The most recent 2011 iteration of this strategy 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 towards the north, Waltham Forest towards the north-east, Newham towards the east, Tower Hamlets to the south-east and also the City of London to 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 about 263150 individuals. Much of Hackney retains an inner-city character, but in such areas as Dalston large housing estates have been joined by newly created gated communities. In South Hackney, near Victoria Park, terraced Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian housing still survives.
Towards the east is the big open space of Hackney Marshes and also the districts of Hackney Wick and Homerton. Light industries inside the space around the River Lea employ over 3000 staff. Some of the area was utilised for the 2012 Summer Olympics.