The London Borough of Hackney is a north east London Borough within 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 deemed 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 latest 2011 iteration of this program assigns Hackney to 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 to the north, Waltham Forest to the north-east, Newham to the east, Tower Hamlets towards the south-east along with 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 around 263150 inhabitants. Much of Hackney retains an inner-city character, but in such areas as Dalston large housing estates have been joined by newly developed gated communities. In South Hackney, close to Victoria Park, terraced Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian housing still survives.
Towards the east is the big open space of Hackney Marshes and the districts of Hackney Wick and Homerton. Light industries within the area around the River Lea employ over 3000 personnel. Some of the area was employed for the 2012 Summer Olympics.