Hackney is where east London’s markets, marshes and after-dark scene all collide, and there’s a lot more to it than the borough’s reputation for coffee and vintage denim suggests.
We’ll level with you: Hackney is a big place to sum up in one list. Cram in a 200-year-old park, half a dozen genuinely different markets, a Tudor manor house, a museum stuffed with pickled curiosities and a canalside brewery scene, and you’ve barely scratched the surface.
Hackney folds into Dalston to the west, Stoke Newington and Clapton to the north, and Victoria Park’s green sprawl marks the boundary with Bethnal Green to the south east. It rewards wandering more than following a strict route, so treat what’s below as a starting point rather than an itinerary, and build your own day around whatever catches your eye.
The best things to do in Hackney
Picnic by the boating lake in Victoria Park
London’s oldest park is home to a couple of quirky monuments, including two stone alcoves rescued from the old London Bridge when it was demolished in 1831, so keep an eye out for them as you walk. Opened in 1845, the park has picked up a Green Flag Award every year since 2010, and its paths run alongside the Regent’s and Hertford Union canals, past a picturesque boating lake that’s as good for a slow lap as it is for sitting beside with a coffee.
It’s a favourite spot for a picnic and doubles as the site of some of London’s biggest summer festivals, so if you’re after peace and quiet, check what’s on before you go. Worth knowing: on festival weekends, large sections close to the public entirely, so a Tuesday picnic is a safer bet than a Saturday one.
Get spooked at Viktor Wynd’s Museum of Curiosities
This small, macabre museum on Mare Street mixes fine art with genuine oddities: a lock of Elvis’s hair, a half-eaten biscuit apparently nibbled by David Attenborough, shrunken heads, two-headed lambs and a run of British surrealist etchings all sit under one roof, reached down a narrow spiral staircase into a basement space. It’s part museum, part bar, part gallery, and it doesn’t feel much like any of our other quirky and unusual things to do in London.
Entry costs £10, and once you’ve taken it all in, the upstairs Absinthe and Cocktail Bar is the obvious place to sit with a stiff drink and process what you’ve just seen. Worth knowing: it isn’t wheelchair accessible, and it doesn’t keep conventional hours, so check the Viktor Wynd Museum website before making a special trip.
Watch Sunday league football at Hackney Marshes
This stretch of grassland on the western bank of the River Lee is known as the home of Sunday league football, with pitches for rugby, football and cricket alongside changing rooms and a rooftop pavilion. Turn up on a Sunday morning and you’ll see more five-a-side games running at once than almost anywhere else in London.
The stretch of water nicknamed “Hackney Beach” draws swimmers in summer, though the water is polluted and best admired from the bank rather than jumped into. We’d stick to watching the football and saving the swimming for somewhere with a lifeguard.
Meet the goats at Hackney City Farm
A working farm in the middle of the city, Hackney City Farm is where children can feed chickens, pet goats and plant seeds in the vegetable garden. It’s as much a treat for adults as for kids, honestly, and there’s something quietly ridiculous about standing in a pigsty with the Hackney skyline visible over the fence.
The farm shop sells fresh eggs and produce to take home, and the on-site cafe is a decent stop for lunch if you’re making a morning of it.
Step back through 400 years at the Museum of the Home
Set inside a Grade I-listed 18th-century almshouse building on Kingsland Road, the Museum of the Home traces the history of domestic life in Britain from 1600 to the present through eleven period room displays and a rotating programme of exhibitions. It might not sound as immediately gripping as dinosaur bones or ancient weapons, but the everyday objects, toys, cooking utensils, furniture, add up to something genuinely absorbing, one of the better museums in London for anyone curious how home life has actually changed.
Entry is free, making it an easy stop for anyone passing through Hoxton or Dalston who fancies an hour indoors.
Climb Hackney’s oldest building at St Augustine’s Tower
The last remaining fragment of Hackney’s original 16th-century parish church, St Augustine’s Tower still houses a working clock dating to around 1608 on its third floor, and it’s Hackney’s oldest standing structure by some distance. It appears on the coat of arms of the London Borough of Hackney, which tells you how much weight the borough puts on it, despite most visitors never having heard of it.
Worth knowing: it’s only open to the public on the final Sunday of each month between 2pm and 4.30pm, run entirely by volunteers, so this is one to plan ahead for rather than turn up on spec.
Wander the panelled rooms of Sutton House
A Grade II-listed Tudor manor house dating to 1535, Sutton House was built for Ralph Sadleir, a close aide to Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII’s court, and it’s now cared for by the National Trust as one of its more atmospheric London properties, over 500 years of history sitting inside a fairly unassuming red-brick shell. Its history spans everything from aristocratic residents to squatters in the 1980s, and today visitors can wander rooms with original Tudor panelling and carved fireplaces, plus a quiet courtyard worth a few minutes on its own.
It’s one of a fairly short list of National Trust properties in London, and one of the more overlooked ones, which suits us fine.
Shop the independents on Mare Street
The main artery through central Hackney is worth exploring in its own right: home to Mare Street Market, independent shops like Rebel Rebel Flowers and record store Stranger Than Paradise, and a concentration of bars and restaurants that reward a slow wander rather than a fixed destination.
None of it is dressed up for visitors, which is exactly why it’s worth doing. Duck into whichever shopfront looks interesting rather than sticking to a list.
Build a weekend around Hackney’s markets
Beyond Mare Street, the borough has a strong run of markets worth building a weekend around, each with its own crowd and its own reason to visit.
- Chatsworth Road Market: a Sunday market over in Clapton, popular with families, with a toy shop to keep kids occupied and a wide spread of food stalls
- Hackney Flea Market: a monthly market for vintage clothing and furniture
- Ridley Road Market: a daily fruit and vegetable market in Dalston, closed Sundays
- Broadway Market: a Saturday street food market
- Bohemia Place Market: a Friday night market spotlighting Black-owned food and craft traders
Make your own candle at Ohros
For something more hands-on, Ohros runs candle making classes for total beginners and experienced candlemakers alike. Owner Georgia talks participants through choosing scented oils and shaping a candle from scratch over a few relaxed hours, a good option for an unhurried afternoon, or a hen do that wants to make something rather than just drink through it.
Find the Hackney Peace Mural
Painted by local artist Ray Walker at the height of the Cold War, this mural depicts a diverse crowd marching against the threat of nuclear war. Walker died in 1984 aged 39, before the work was finished; it was completed the following year by Mike Jones and Walker’s wife, Anna, and it remains one of the borough’s most striking pieces of public art, tucked away on the side of a building rather than announced with any fanfare.
Step into another world at Otherworld VR
This immersive gaming venue lets visitors step into a private pod for virtual reality games, either solo or against friends. There are 16 games and worlds to choose from at Otherworld, including a digital theme park, with wind, heat and rumble effects built into the pods to sharpen the illusion. It’s a genuinely odd way to spend an evening, in the best sense.
Sweat it out at Hackney Community Sauna and Baths
A spa experience without the hotel price tag: sixty-minute morning sessions at Hackney Community Sauna and Baths cost from £8.50 and include access to one of six outdoor communal saunas, or a private six-person sauna for groups, plus ice-cold plunges in converted whisky barrels. Leaf whisking sessions, massage, breathwork and sauna yoga are also on the timetable, over on the Hackney Wick side of the borough.
Battle it out at Draughts board game cafe
Book a table at Draughts and get unlimited access to a genuinely extensive games library, more than 1,000 titles, from a quick round of Connect 4 to hours-long multiplayer role-playing sessions. Set menus bundle food and drink together, and a dedicated games host is on hand to help pick something suited to the group, whether that’s a first date or an office away day. It’s one of the better board game cafes in London, and if this one’s booked up, there’s a sister branch under Waterloo station’s Leake Street tunnel too.
Drink by the water at Crate Brewery
One of the first breweries to open in Hackney Wick, back in 2012, Crate sits right on the River Lee with views over the street art that lines the water. It’s one of our favourite London breweries, partly for the beer and partly for the setting: a first-floor room in the old White Building, with a beer garden that’s a solid spot for a pint and a genuinely good stonebaked pizza on a slow afternoon.
Taste your way through the taps at Hackney Brewery
Twenty taps of Hackney-brewed beer make this taproom worth seeking out for anyone who wants to taste their way through the local scene. There’s no kitchen on site, but Pizza Lovers sets up from Thursday to Sunday to cover food. Worth knowing: the Hackney Brewery taproom itself now sits over the border in Walthamstow, at the High Hill site on Blackhorse Lane, so it’s a bus or overground ride from central Hackney rather than a walk. Confusing given the name, but the beer’s worth the trip regardless.
Try the kaiseki menu at Angelina
This Dalston restaurant mixes Japanese and Italian cooking into a menu that doesn’t look like anything else nearby. The ten-course kaiseki menu at Angelina runs to £64, while the four-course omakase menu is £40, with a wine pairing available for an extra £35. Service is relaxed rather than formal, which suits the food, and suits Dalston generally.
Dance until late at Night Tales
A 300 square metre terrace combining a pizza restaurant, several cocktail bars and a dance floor, Night Tales books in well-known DJs alongside its regular programming. Some nights are free to enter and others require tickets, so it’s worth checking the lineup before heading over, and dressing for a night that runs later than you planned.
