News on Hackney Central

The Hackney Central Conversation: What you told us and our next steps

Hackney Council launched the Hackney Central Conversation in July 2019 so local people could tell us what they love about Hackney Central, the challenges they experience, and what changes they would like to see the Council make in the area. The approach for the project was about early, ongoing and honest dialogue with those who live, work and visit the area so that they can influence change in their community.

Over 2,000 people visited the commonplace website, and shared over 2,000 comments or added agreements or likes to these. This online engagement was supplemented through workshops, community meetings, and stalls on the Narrow Way and at Hackney Carnival.

The newly published Hackney Central Conversation report captures the Conversation’s findings and sets out the key local issues and priorities commented on by those who participated. These included:

Recognising the value of local parks and green spaces and encouraging more small scale additions like the Garden of Earthly Delights on Graham Road.

Improvements to Hackney Central Station to deal with overcrowding at peak times.

Reducing the impact of traffic in the town centre, creating a better environment for walking and cycling.

Supporting the diverse range of shops and businesses in Hackney, while keeping larger anchor stores.

Tackling antisocial behaviour in public spaces, including parks in the area and around the Narrow Way.

Controlling new development in the town centre, ensuring changes benefit the local community and don’t impact the character of the area.

Reconnecting different parts of the town centre that are separated by major roads and the railway line.

Please follow this link to learn more about the Hackney Central projects here .

You can download a PDF copy of the full Hackney Central Conversation report here .

Continuing the Conversation

Over recent years, Hackney Central has welcomed more new homes and employment opportunities, shoppers, businesses and places to visit, workspaces, and a bustling evening economy. Pedestrianisation of the Narrow Way has supported a new market, local traders and shoppers, and new cultural offers and opportunities. Building on this, the Council aims to create 3,000 new jobs and 1,000 new homes in Hackney Central, centred around investment in transport infrastructure, key sites and improving public spaces. This transformation must happen in a way that is shaped by the priorities of local people, businesses and groups, collaboratively building on what’s important and unique about Hackney Central, whilst addressing some of the area’s challenges.

We’re committed to ensuring a fair recovery from the pandemic and rebuilding a cleaner, greener and more accessible Hackney Central. As the town centre grows, we will work with partners to safeguard what local people value most, support local businesses to continue thriving in a changing economy, and ensure local people are the first to benefit from the changes taking place.

This is why we are establishing The Hackney Central Community Panel , a group of local residents, organisations, businesses and other stakeholders, who will meet every two months to discuss projects and ambitions for the local area.

We hope that the Panel will act as a mechanism for conversation, idea development and updates, and inspire a collective sense of custodianship for the future for Hackney Central. The ambition for the Panel is to support the Council in ensuring forthcoming changes around Hackney Central – including initiatives to help people get around, the future of important Council-owned sites in the town centre, and changes to local planning rules to control new developments – meet the priorities of the local community.

For more information and to apply to represent Hackney Central on Panel click here .

Posted on 19th May 2021

by Communications team