Hackney Marshes
Hackney Marshes is internationally known as the spiritual home of Sunday league football, with 82 football, rugby and cricket pitches on North and South Marsh and Mabley Green.
On this page:
Hackney Marshes Centre
The award-winning Hackney Marshes Centre provides 31 spacious changing rooms, a café and a public terrace. It’s a great venue for conferences, weddings, educational events and community events. For more information please contact us or visit Better – Hackney Marshes Centre.
Hackney Marshes Pavilion
The Hackney Marshes Pavilion provides 16 spacious changing rooms and four officials’ rooms, alongside a social space overlooking the cricket show pitch. It’s a great venue for educational, team and community events. For more information please contact us or visit Better – Hackney Marshes Centre.
Amenities
- trim trail
- bird hide
- conservation area
- tree nursery
- football pitches
- rugby pitches
- café bar and roof terrace
- cricket pitches
- cricket practice nets
- junior football pitches
- conference/meeting rooms
- changing facilities
The park holds a Green Flag award. The awards are given to the best green spaces in the country and are awarded each year to make sure the quality of the green space remains high.
Prices
Grass football – peak time prices
- 11 a side block booking – adult: £98.45 and junior: £46.60
- 9 a side – adult: £82.15 and junior: £41.15
- 7 side – adult: £71.10 and junior: £35.50
Peak times are evenings and weekends. For a full list of sports pitch prices across the borough call 020 8986 7955, email hackney.marshes@gll.org or visit Better – Hackney Marshes.
Sports pitch bookings and enquiries
Sports pitch bookings are managed by Better. To book pitches call 020 8986 7955, email hackney.marshes@gll.org or visit Better – Hackney Marshes.
Rewilding Hackney Marshes
North Marsh Habitats Project
The North Marsh Habitats Project began with a plan to enhance habitat around the new Hackney Marshes Pavilion. Local ecologist Russell Miller devised a scheme to add flower rich pollinator gardens and wet scrapes for other invertebrates.
Funded by the Greater London Authority’s Grow Back Greener Fund and Hackney Council, the project built two low nutrient substrate gardens designed by renowned wildlife gardener John Little. One demonstration garden sits at the south end of the pavilion whilst the other sits in a minibus parking bay in the car park, illustrating what can be done in a parking bay. Both feature a mix of recycled aggregates and sand as growing and nesting media for plants and pollinators.
A hoggin bee path was added next to the nearby cricket nets as another nesting substrate for ground nesting bees. To the east of the pavilion a wet scrape was created to provide wet, decaying logs for deadwood invertebrates which there are several rare flies on the marshes. Whitethroats have started feeding here, also utilising the nearby scrub.
Hedgehog homes and log piles add refugia for small mammals and amphibians to hibernate or hide from cats and dogs of which there are far too many on the marshes. To the north two more wet scrapes feed a new wildlife pond which in less than a year is already home to newts and damselflies with weasels, hedgehogs and a hobby all seen close by.
East of the pond one hectare of amenity sports grass has been added to the existing Metropolitan Site of Importance for Nature Conservation with 400 native trees planted in 4 ‘stepping stone’ copses creating a wider wildlife corridor around North Marsh. More loggeries add invertebrate, wood mouse and hedgehog homes and an experimental pollinator garden defines the gateway to Friends Bridge.
Hackney Marshes
Address
Telephone
Opening times
- 24 hour access
Notes
Closing times:
- 1 January to 21 January – 5pm
- 22 January to 4 February – 5.30pm
- 5 February to 25 February – 6pm
- 26 February to 10 March – 6.30pm
- 11 March to 24 March – 7pm
- 25 March to 7 April – 8pm
- 8 April to 21 April – 8.30pm
- 22 April to 5 May – 9pm
- 6 May to 11 August – 9.30pm
- 12 August to 18 August – 9pm
- 19 August to 8 September – 8.30pm
- 9 September to 15 September – 8pm
- 16 September to 6 October – 7.30pm
- 7 October to 13 October – 7pm
- 14 October to 27 October – 6.30pm
- 28 October to 31 December – 5pm