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 plan 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 towards the north-east, Newham towards the east, Tower Hamlets towards the south-east and also 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 people. Much of Hackney retains an inner-city character, but in such places as Dalston large housing estates have been joined by newly created 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 in the space around the River Lea employ more than 3000 individuals. Some of the area was used for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
