Brigette

Last night I was watching HGTV's House Hunters International and there happened to be a young couple relocating to London. Since I have hopes of moving back to the UK soon, I was intrigued so I kept on watching.

The couple was looking for flats in Hackney. Hackney was described as an up and coming area for artists and musicians. Color me shocked I have only heard very bad things about Hackney so I was very shocked to see the portrayal of Hackney as being "gentrified".

The female of the couple is an artist and she specifically wanted to be in Hackney, the male who was going to Uni wanted to be in Hackney as well.

Does anyone know anything about the "up and coming " Hackney? Is this true or was this done as part of a TV show?

Thanks guys

Lion in Winter

Oh yeah, like a lot of London, old Hackney is gentrifying. It's still a mixture, but it's going.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2011/08/09...oadway-market/

britwhore

I've heard it's being re-gentrified pretty quickly. I'm sure it's still a little "dodgy" but most of the East side of London (Whitechapel, Aldwych etc) have got all the artist types moving in.

Brigette

Thanks guys.. I just did a search and Hackney is playing host to some of the Olympic games as well so it has been spruced up a bit.

Britwhore, not familiar with Aldwych but will google it.

Lion in the Water, thanks so much for the link All I can say is WOW after reading it

Englishmum

We lived for a while in the London Borough of Hackney, in Upper Clapton. In our flat (one of those 1930s art-deco 'mansion blocks') we were the only Gentiles (non-Jews). Most of the residents were the Hassidic Jews (ultra-Orthodox) aka the 'Stamford Hill Cowboys'. It was a lovely leafy street (Cazenove Rd, N16) and it was a very pleasant place to live; just across the street was/is the lovely Springfield Park. All the local shops are closed on Saturdays with the exception of some Muslim owned ones. I had a nice friend who lived below us, Yetta, who was always inviting me round for tea and cakes - she doted on my daughter - and would get me to buy a newspaper for her on Saturdays and discreetly pass it on to her without the knowledge of the Hassids Oddly enough, there were quite a few synagogues in the local vicinity but only about half a mile away there were mosques and a couple of churches too, so the area was quite diverse.

Just at the bottom of our long street was Stoke Newington railway station for Liverpool St (Clapton was our nearest, although I often took a bus to Manor House Piccadilly Line tube station).

Stoke Newington is the 'trendy/yuppie' area with some lovely old Georgian style houses and flats (similar to Victoria Park and Clissold Park nearby) and upscale restaurants and gastro-pubs, especially around Stoke Newington Church Street. I went to the local parish church a few times. However...crime was a problem in Stoke Newington, muggings weren't unusual and Stoke Newington police station was always in the news, mainly because of complaints by black people complaining of the cops being racists/biased or allegedly beating up or harrassing blacks.

We moved out to the Epping Forest area when our daughter was 31/2. I was anxious about sending her to school - all the 'best' schools were Jewish and the other local schools were (and probably still are) 'sink' schools as there were large 1930s council flats on estates just a few streets away and many (by no means all) residents had social problems with drink and drugs (can you remember watching "The Bill"? Those kind of flats lol! We wanted to trade up to a house as I wanted to have another baby, so private schooling wasn't affordable - we were still in our 20s. It was a nice place to live and great for people without children, in my opinion.

Another part of Hackney which is now very popular is Shoreditch & Hoxton. There are boutique hotels, posh restaurants/gastro-pubs and Shoreditch House private club. My spouse often stays in an hotel in Shoreditch if he has to attend meetings in the Old St/Liverpool St vicinity. I stayed there with him a couple of years ago and disliked it. Is this the place the people on HGTV were looking at?

PS: Just remembered something. Our daughter went to the 'Fleet Street Nursery' at the London Womens Centre just off Kingsway (near Covent Garden). One of her friend's had parents who were very artistic and lived in Hackney, just off Brick Lane. I know that many people in arts/entertainment/media were in the same neighbourhood: the husband was a founder of 'Flying Brick Productions' - they've produced lots of things for Channel 4, especially comedies and the wife was an artist.

Links:

http://www.n16mag.com/

http://www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoke_Newington

http://www.welovestokenewington.org/

http://www.timeout.com/london/featur...tch-area-guide

Brigette

Englishmum,

Thanks so much for the detailed description I'm checking out the links you provided now.

I'm not sure what area they were looking in..but I know that they got a very tiny flat... they looked at two flats in Hackney and one just outside of Hackney (which was my favorite) large, artsy, beautiful but expensive. They eventually took the tiny flat in Hackney as they wanted to have money to got out and travel etc. I'm hoping HGTV will repeat it so that I can DVR it

Karrie72

My parents live in Bow just across Victoria Park from Hackney and they daily ride their bikes across the park to shop at some lovely little deli and butchers shop. I've found that whole area has changed and gentrified in the last five years and feels very safe and family oriented. I'm sure there are dodgy parts of course but I don't remember specific locations.

Brigette

Thanks so much. Amazing isn't it how in five years the neighborhood has changed.

lilybilly101

Stoke Newington is fantastic. Pricey though!

Brigette

lilybilly101,

I did some digging on rightmove and was shocked how expensive Stoke Newington is

chazlondon

The schools are very good as well.

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-...der/ELS/100253

britwhore

Sorry I was thinking of Aldgate!!! Aldwych is a street!!

Brigette

Which is why I couldn't find it No worries. Thanks for letting me know