The London Borough of Hackney is a north east London Borough inside 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 entire boroughs to sub-regions for statutory monitoring, engagement and resource allocation purposes. The most recent 2011 iteration of this program assigns Hackney towards the 'East' sub-region, though 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 towards the north-east, Newham towards the east, Tower Hamlets to 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 has a permanent population of about 263150 individuals. Much of Hackney retains an inner-city character, but in such places as Dalston big housing estates have been joined by newly created gated communities. In South Hackney, close to Victoria Park, terraced Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian housing still survives.
Towards the east is the large open space of Hackney Marshes plus the districts of Hackney Wick and Homerton. 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.