The London Borough of Hackney has always been regarded by Londoners as an utter dump, or in cockney vernacular “a ********”. In the last ten years , the media has been obsessed with the borough – claiming it has been “gentrifiied”. Of course “gentrification” was nothing more than a scheme for estate agents to charge young (desperate or naive)professionals extortionate amounts for **** properties in the worst part of town. “In the City’s doorstep”…in reality you are miles away from the City and central London …and never more than 50 yards away from a mugger or a drug dealer.
Stabbings and acid attacks are almost a weekly occurrence.
If you approach hackney via the decent borough of Islington you will notice the warning signs quickly – around the Old Street roundabout the contrast will be visible – suddenly, the streets are filthy, the people rude and aggressive, police presence is non-existent, public services are useless, the shops are ****.
Due to the council’s stupid decision of allowing 24-hour licensing the Hoxton-Shoreditch-Kingland Road triangle is filled with drunks who will be loud and obnoxious at 3am and urinate/****/vomit in your doorstep if you are unlucky enough to live there. The only people who seem to be happy about this are the local muggers who clearly see drunken hipsters as easy targets. It is not surprising, as expecting the local police force to protect you is about as wise as believing in fairy tales.
If you think it can’t get any worse, you are sadly mistaken. The rest of the borough Mare Street, London Fields, Haggeston, Clapton etc…are places where the likelihood of you getting mugged/******/raped/ thrown acid at are higher than any other part of London. It is not unusual to have three generations of delinquents living in one council home.
The borough public health services and public schools are among the worst in London. The local shop either cater for third-world standards or are overpriced hipster ****. Nothing reasonable in-between.
You may protest “but, but, but…every borough must have some beautiful parts, too”.
Ok, the Stamford Hill is fairly nice, “ok-ish” ,you would say. The locals try to patrol their own neighbourhood. (Their unarmed, unofficial police is called Shomrin.) Despite the locals’ remarkable effort, people from the rest of the borough still “ensure” that Stamford Hill still has problems with crime.
In short: avoid Hackney like plague. If you want/need to live in London, live in ANY other London borough. All of them are better than Hackney.
