The London Borough of Hackney is a north east London Borough inside Inner London in the United Kingdom. Southern and eastern parts of the borough are popularly, but unofficially, regarded as being a 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 whole boroughs to sub-regions for statutory monitoring, engagement and resource allocation purposes. The most recent 2011 iteration of this strategy assigns Hackney towards the 'East' sub-region, even though 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 as well as the City of London to the south-west. It covers a total area of 7.36 square miles. Based on population estimates from 2014, the borough has a permanent population of around 263150 inhabitants. A great deal of Hackney retains an inner-city character, but in such places 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.
To the east is the big open space of Hackney Marshes and the districts of Hackney Wick and Homerton. Light industries within the area surrounding the River Lea employ more than 3000 personnel. Some of the area was utilised for the 2012 Summer Olympics.