Hackney Central

Hackney is already facing a critical housing shortage and affordability crisis, and the population will continue to grow in the years ahead. Instead of accepting increased demand for housing and pressure on services and facilities, we’re committed to managing this growth sustainably.

As one of the borough’s major town centres, with a range of sites that can be repurposed or redeveloped, Hackney Central will be an important area for accommodating new homes and jobs, as well as the facilities and infrastructure needed to support these. We will use the opportunities that growth and development can bring to ensure everyone benefits from it and that the town centre environment and our economy is made better for everyone.

It’s not just about new homes and jobs for future generations. The changes taking place in Hackney Central provide an opportunity to create an improved town centre, better public spaces, new facilities for residents and opportunities for businesses to grow, and most importantly a greener town centre in an area which is today impacted by high traffic, dangerous junctions and poor air quality. 

These priorities for Hackney Central have been shaped by the views of thousands of local people through the Hackney Central Conversation in 2019, the Moving around Hackney Central consultation in 2019 which included detailed discussions about how people get around Hackney Central, and engagement on the Hackney Central town centre strategy in 2021.

We’ll use the feedback and priorities of residents, community groups and businesses to ensure changes benefit local people, while protecting the unique heritage and culture of Hackney Central.

We’ve secured more than £19m investment from the Levelling Up Fund to support our ambitions for a cleaner, greener, more accessible Hackney Central.

See Levelling Up Fund for Hackney

The Town Centre Sites programme covers nine council or publicly owned sites in Hackney Central and Dalston. We’ve appointed a design team led by Adam Khan Architects and Muf Architecture/Art to produce feasibility studies for the sites to explore the development potential of these sites to deliver new homes, jobs and public space This work could contribute to our ambitious plans to deliver 1000 new Council homes by 2026.

Four of the Town Centre Sites are located in Hackney Central;

• Hackney Central Station car park (and surrounding Council owned land)
• Florfield Depot
• Iceland, Mare Street
• Hackney Town Hall car park 

See architects appointed to explore new ideas for homes, workspace and community spaces in Dalston and Hackney Central

In July 2022, we announced an intention to appoint a development partner to work in partnership to develop the site at 55 Morning Lane, with a commitment to putting the priorities of the local community first.

Any development on the site will prioritise genuinely affordable housing, pursuing every opportunity to maximise new social housing, including funding this ourselves and working alongside the GLA and other potential funders. 

We’re committed to retaining a Tesco supermarket as part of any new plan for the site, as well as incorporating opportunities for businesses and more jobs, and high-quality and greener public spaces.

In the same spirit as speaking to thousands of local people about the long-term future of Hackney Central through the town centre strategy, we will develop these plans in collaboration with the local community. We’re committed to undertaking a co-design process with local residents, businesses and stakeholders to capture feedback and ensure that any future plans for the area reflect the shared aspirations for this significant site.

Sign up to the Hackney Central newsletter to find out about opportunities to get involved.

We’re working with Transport for London to explore options for three bus garage sites in Hackney to redevelop the bus garages in order to electrify the bus fleet through Hackney and beyond. The aim is to reduce the negative impact of diesel buses on our neighbourhoods, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, noise pollution and significantly improving air quality across the borough. 

The sites are:

• Clapton Bus Garage 
• Ash Grove Bus Garage 
• Lea Bridge Roundabout 

This project is at a very early stage and will be further developed with TfL before community engagement takes place.

We utilised council land on Graham Road to help Network Rail and Transport for London deliver a new ticket hall and station entrance at Hackney Central station as part of a £3 million upgrade to deal with unsafe overcrowding in the ticket hall and on the platforms, make the station more accessible and allow passengers to complete their journeys more quickly and easily.

The new station entrance includes a new covered station entrance, cycle parking, and new planting and greenery, while also creating better and quicker walking routes to and from the town centre and the interchange with Hackney Downs.

The Hackney Central Impact and Ideas (HCII) Fund was developed as part of a wider programme of council-led business support to help local businesses through the Covid-19 pandemic. The fund was just under £600,000 and supported 23 local organisations across the Hackney Central area, to develop and scale new ideas as they responded to the challenges of the pandemic.

Throughout 2022, we worked with funded local businesses and our delivery partners, PRD, to support project delivery and understand the impact of the fund. For more information about what was delivered and how Hackney businesses and residents benefited from the fund.

Read our HCII Celebration and Learning report (PDF 32.1mb).