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 areas deemed 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 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 towards the west, Haringey towards the north, Waltham Forest to 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 features a permanent population of about 263150 people. A lot 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.
To the east is the big open space of Hackney Marshes as well as the districts of Hackney Wick and Homerton. Light industries inside the area surrounding the River Lea employ more than 3000 individuals. Some of the area was employed for the 2012 Summer Olympics.