When relaxation of lockdown allows, I will be back leading my regular schedule of Hackney History walks in 20 different parts of today’s Hackney. In the meantime, if you click on SELF-GUIDE WALKS you will find routes you might like to take. These walks offer a history focus to walks you might like to follow under…
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Posts by Walk Hackney
London Fields to De Beauvoir (1.2 miles)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/17 This route follows a footway suggested by ‘Central London Footways’ https://footways.london – a mapped network of quiet and interesting streets for walking, available from local bookshops and online. Start at the entrance to London Fields on the east side by Martello (formerly Tower) Street. 2/17 You’re at…
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Haggerston Walk (1.7 miles)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/20 History lockdown walk through Haggerston, an ancient settlement in the northern part of the parish of Shoreditch. Start at Haggerston Station, on the North London Line, originally opened one block south on Dunston Street in 1865. Walk east along Lee Street. beside Stonebridge Common, created from the…
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De Beauvoir to Old Street (1.1m)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/20 This route follows the footway suggested by ‘Central London Footways’ https://footways.london– mapped network of quiet and interesting streets for walking, available from various bookshops (see https://bit.ly/3mHwRbX). Keep to the right hand side of the road for the whole route. 2/20 Start at the junction of Downham and…
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West Hoxton Walk (1 mile)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/17 West Hoxton: a self-guided Hackney history walk for the current times. Start at St Johns Church, Pitfield St, to saunter through ‘New Hoxton’ to Shepherdess Walk Park. Whereas ‘Hochestone’ village, mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book, was centred on Hoxton Street, the open land to the west…
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Kingsland to Newington Green
This walk planned for Saturday, 4th July, 2020 at 11am has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation. Along the western fringes of Hackney, this walk takes you from Kingsland to Newington Green, going through four ancient parishes. Once the hunting ground of kings, we finish in an area that became a hive of ‘seditious’…
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London Fields
This walk planned for Saturday, 27th June, 2020 at 11am has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation. Follow an ancient trackway out of Hackney to hear about the ‘common land’ of London Fields, one of London’s few remaining Lidos, the first Jews in Hackney, 18th century asylums for the mentally sick, the Regent’s Canal,…
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Kingsland Waste Walk (1.2 miles)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/16 Start at the southern entrance to Dalston Junction Station (not the one on Dalston Lane). This walk takes you for a stroll down and up the north part of Kingsland Road. Waste was a name given to economically unproductive and uncultivated land often, as in this case,…
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Hackney Downs
This walk planned for Saturday, 13th June, 2020 at 11am has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation. Bounded betwixt Clapton, Dalston and Shacklewell, Hackney Downs, the highest piece of open ground within 4 miles of central London, has, like other parts of Hackney, its own history to tell. Once ‘common land’, in its environs were…
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AROUND SHACKLEWELL (1 mile)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/15 A Hackney history walk for lockdown through Shacklewell. Start at the junction of Stoke Newington Road and Shacklewell Lane. On the other side of Kingsland High Street draper Ziba Dudley took over his father-in-law’s shop by 1895. Gradually this absorbed the whole block becoming ‘NE London’s Leading…
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Upper Clapton
This walk will take place on Saturday, 30th May, 2020 at 11am. Climb to Hackney’s highest point. Along the way we will take in Stoke Newington Common, Clapton Common, Hackney’s oldest surviving Church, see inside the former Agapemonite Church, now London’s Georgian Cathedral, and finish by admiring the views from Springfield Park. Duration : 2.5 hours Cost:…
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WEST ALONG DALSTON LANE (0.8 mile)
When following this route, please remember to: This route takes you west along Dalston Lane. It is complemented by another walk heading east from Dalston CLR James Library along Dalston Lane. 1/14 Start at the Academy Apartments, E8 1AL, by Pembury Circus. In 1803 this was the site of the Hackney School of Industry. It…
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EAST ALONG Dalston Lane (0.8 mile)
When following this route, please remember to: This route takes you east along Dalston Lane. It is complemented by another walk heading west from Pembury Corner along Dalston Lane. 1/14 Start outside CLR James Dalston Library, E8 3BQ. To celebrate Hackney’s Afro-Caribbean community this library (Dalston’s third) was named after the Caribbean journalist, political activist…
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Haggerston
This walk will take place on Saturday, 16th May, 2020 at 11am. This walk tells the history of Haggerston, the northern-most and once the most rural, undeveloped, part of the ancient parish of Shoreditch. The walk will also go along Columbia Road, in neighbouring Bethnal Green. What was Mr Fairchild’ Mule? How was Haggerston Park created? See…
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Lower Homerton (I mile)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/10 Start outside St Barnabas Church, E9 6DL, halfway down Homerton High Street. Homerton’s first church, it was built in 1847. In 1944 a VI rocket bomb landed behind and damaged the church interior and the churchyard. The eastern part of Homerton was called ‘Lower Homerton’. Walk past…
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SKIRTING LONDON FIELDS (1.9 miles)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/17 Start outside London Fields Station built in 1872 on the Great Eastern Line, which was the third train line to cross Hackney. By the 17th century this area was part of gardens of big houses built as Hackney spread south down Mare St. 2/17 Take a right…
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DOWN QUEENSBRIDGE ROAD WALK (1.1 miles)
When following this route, please remember to: The walk takes you down the west side of Queensbridge Road. It is complemented by another route which takes you up the east side of the road. 1/12 Start at The Victoria, E8 3AS, a pub since the 1850s. This is the only building surviving of the original…
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UP QUEENSBRIDGE ROAD WALK (1.1 miles)
When following this route, please remember to: The route takes you up the east side of Queensbridge Road. It is complemented by another walk which takes you down the west side of the road. 1/13 Start at the junction with Hackney Road E2 8NP, the boundary between the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney….
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THROUGH HOXTON’S SQUARES (1.1 miles)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/13 Start outside St John’s Church Hoxton, N1 6NP. Hoxton was in the parish of Shoreditch. When the ancient parish of St Leonard’s Shoreditch was divided, the church was built in 1826 to serve the growing population of Hoxton. There were 26689 burials in the churchyard between 1826…
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Central hackney to South Hackney (1.3 miles)
When following this route, please remember to: 1/10 Start at St. Augustine’s Tower, E8 1HR, the surviving part of the first church in Hackney. It was built about 1275, probably by the Knights Templar. It is Hackney’s oldest building. Corner stones mark the footprint of the original building. The tower is open to visit free…
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