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 locations regarded 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 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 towards the west, Haringey towards the north, Waltham Forest to the north-east, Newham towards the east, Tower Hamlets towards the south-east and the City of London towards the south-west. It covers a total area of 7.36 square miles. As outlined by 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 areas 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.
Towards the north of the borough are Upper Clapton and Lower Clapton, Stamford Hill and Stoke Newington. Light industries within the area around the River Lea employ over 3000 people. Some of the area was used for the 2012 Summer Olympics.