As such it extends north from Regent's Canal (with Bethnal Green), takes in most of Broadway Market and London Fields, and follows each side of Mare Street till it terminates in the vicinity of Hackney Central railway station.

This was a place that flourished from the Tudor period, when principal members of the Court had their houses in the surrounding area, and King Henry VIII of England had a palace (located near the modern Lea Bridge Road roundabout).

Railways, trams and factories brought an end to Hackney's rural atmosphere during the Victorian era, and its fortunes declined.

The industries of nearby Homerton and the Lee Valley have largely disappeared, leaving the NHS and local council as the largest employers.

Successive waves of immigrants, both from abroad and within the United Kingdom, make modern Hackney a culturally vibrant part of inner London, with both the benefits and challenges that this brings.

In 1727 Daniel Defoe said of the villages of Hackney All these, except the Wyck-house, are within a few years so encreas'd in buildings, and so fully inhabited, that there is no comparison to be made between their present and past state: Every separate hamlet is encreas'd, and some of them more than treble as big as formerly; Indeed as this whole town is included in the bills of mortality, tho' no where joining to London, it is in some respects to be call'd a part of it.This town is so remarkable for the retreat of wealthy citizens, that there is at this time near a hundred coaches kept in it; tho' I will not join with a certain satyrical author, who said of Hackney, that there were more coaches than Christians in it.

[6] By 1724, while still consisting of a single street, there is an unbroken line of buildings, except by the churchyard and by the brook, with large gardens behind for the finer houses and inns.

This began in 1791 on a field to the north east of the old church, but was bedeviled by builders' bankruptcies and not finally completed until 1812–1813 when the tower and porches were added.

[7] An early 18th-century mansion, now the New Landsdown Club, but once the headquarters of Elizabeth Fry's British Ladies' Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners remains at 195 Mare Street.

The change from rural suburb to firmly urban, was marked by the arrival of the railway in 1850, with a great iron rail bridge crossing Mare Street.

By the turn of the 20th century, only St Johns Gardens, and Clapton Square, the areas around the 1791 church, remained as public open space.

Its north side is dominated by Frank Matcham's Grade II* listed 1901 Hackney Empire music hall, on whose stage appeared Charles Chaplin and Marie Lloyd – who lived in nearby Graham Road.

Opposite on the East side, is the 2001 refurbishment of the Central Library and Methodist Hall, combined to form the Ocean Music Venue.

Its gallery includes classic curiosities such as hairballs, Sebastian Horsley nails from his crucifixion and drawings and archive material to do with Stephen Tennant, a collection of human remains including shrunken heads, dead babies in bottles and parts of pickled prostitutes, as well as condoms used by the Rolling Stones and tribal art, in among an art collection which spans several centuries.

The roof is of unusual design, carried by ten 35-ton triangular trusses supported on reinforced concrete columns, and was developed at a cost of £3.5 million.

[19][20] The area is 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of the City of London with frequent trains from Hackney Downs railway station to Liverpool Street.

The primary local employers are the council and the NHS at Homerton University Hospital; there are also two London Transport garages, one at the foot of the Narroway, and another about 1 mile south at Ash Grove.