Hackney Central is the civic heart of the borough, a destination for culture, and a home for some of the borough’s major landmarks – the stunning Hackney Town Hall, the Grade II listed Hackney Empire, and the historic high street along Mare Street and the Narrow Way.

It’s an ethnically and culturally diverse area, with around 40% of residents coming from a non-white background. But it’s also somewhere where people are more likely to be left behind due to factors like poor health, loneliness or low income.

Thousands of people took part in the Hackney Central Conversation and helped create the Hackney Central Town Centre Strategy. You identified priorities including: 

• Hackney Central‘s local feel is vital to the success of the area
• The institutions, venues and spaces that create community bonds should be supported and enhanced
• The sense of character and distinctiveness needs to be safeguarded
• Cultural, civic and open spaces are important arenas for social interactions.

To deliver on your feedback, we’ll not just protect Hackney Central’s heritage, such as conservations areas, listed buildings and civic buildings but enhance it – investing in excellent public spaces, cultural facilities and the library, displaying and celebrating the area’s heritage, and improving access to educational, community and digital facilities.

We’ll also work with the community to create public spaces that better represent this diversity, and make sure leisure and library services are more open and accessible to all to help reduce social isolation and bridge health and income inequalities.

This will support our missions for Hackney Central, created in partnership with the local community, to champion our character by broadening cultural and heritage activities and encourage wellbeing for all by supporting the spaces, services and local networks that enable Hackney Central’s communities to feel healthy and safe.