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 part of east London, with northern and western areas considered 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 to the west, Haringey towards the north, Waltham Forest to the north-east, Newham to 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. In accordance with population estimates from 2014, the borough includes a permanent population of about 263150 people. Much of Hackney retains an inner-city character, but in such locations as Dalston large 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 north of the borough are Upper Clapton and Lower Clapton, Stamford Hill and Stoke Newington. Light industries within the area surrounding the River Lea employ over 3000 personnel. Some of the area was made use of for the 2012 Summer Olympics.