My Day in Hackney

I spent a wonderful day on Saturday exploring Hackney with Aisling Conboy and her flat mate Rina. Hackney itself is much different than London; it's not as busy and has a more hip, "urban" feel to it. It's very New York, almost like Greenwich Village is how I would describe it.

There's a canal that runs through the center of town with distressed and abandoned warehouses on either side that harken back to the town's factory days. Nowadays those warehouses have become hip studios which artists and musicians choose to call home.

You get a good view of the canal as well as some of the old warehouses!

Walking along the canal was very cool, but it's also a popular spot for cyclists. Cyclists, people walking, a narrow sidewalk, and water is not a good combination. We kept looking behind us every two seconds hoping someone wasn't going to knock us in the canal!

There was also a local organization that was hosting an exhibition that shows the history of Hackney. Aisling was explaining to me that not a lot of people tended to come down to Hackney in the past, so there's been groups of people lately who are really trying to build up the area. 

Hackney actually has a very rich history, apparently there used to be a long Roman road that ran through the area and remains of the road can still be found in Hackney today. 

A part of the exhibition which shows what the old Roman road would have looked like

There was also a replica of an apartment building from the 70s which was sort of like a dollhouse for adults! 

The model was mainly constructed out of photographs, including the bricks on the outside. If you looked closely, you could see that each photo was different; similar to what the actual outside of a building would look like. There were also photos of actual families who were living in the building in the 70s; it was almost like you were getting to take a glance into their life! 

Hackney was definitely a great place to visit, it's the perfect place to go if you want to get away from the more "tourist-y" parts of London.  It's also got really great Turkish and Indian restaurants, which is definitely a plus! I will definitely be paying another visit to Hackney before I leave, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to find a great place full of excitement and hip. trendy locals!