The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Bethnal Green and Hackney, Greater London*

Bethnal Green and Hackney, Greater London Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• London Chest Hospital (soon to be sold off, so I'm told)
• Sutton House - Nationla Trust property and Hackney's oldest building. Well preserved and restored, and not at all stuffy like many NT places Springfield Park Cafe is a lovely setting, despite the slow service and overpriced food. The new Central Library is really well done Chats Palace - an over-the-top little mock-Georgian gem in the middle of Homerton's squalour And the Empire of course
• the last one I'll see when I leave Hackney for good
• Hacney Empire. Even under the scaffolding it exudes an air of dignity. Like an old duchess under hair curlers.
• spitalfields market is a nice building, also the houses standing at the top of bricklane and the houses of Fournier street
• I love all the remaining cobbled dingy alley ways off the Cambridge Heath Road. The arches are fascinating on Dunbridge Road. There was a pub on Three colts near Brady street that has closed now, converted into flats I believe. It had a cute roof top garden which overlooked the park and school. shame. The Krays drank there. That was the 2nd closest pub to Vallance rd after Carpenters Arms in cheshire street. St Matthews Church is very tranquil, you would never believe it was so near to poverty and slum living back in the early 1900's. It looks so peacful now and a haven from over crowded east end streets. Paradise Row is my favourite street just near the Salmon & Ball pub which was build in 1700 and something.
• Hackney Town Hall.
• Mabley Street (off Kenworthy Road) if you want to see one of the last authentic Victorian terraces left intact after the war (and it's still got local people living there as it hasn't been bought up by the trendies - yet)
• The Empire...so much history
• The Public Baths,we had no bath room and the toilet was 3 flights down and at the bottom of the yard.We use to go once or twice a week depending on the money and the rest of the week wash in the sink with hot water from the copper.
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children ( now closed so pop along soon before they convert it into another block of luxury flats we can't afford to live in).
• Dalston Lane Chequerboard Flats
• Edith Cavell Sec. Modern
• Hackney Empire in the 60's. what a place
• The Cafe in Clissold Park.

Demolish It Now Building

• The Medical Mission, Cambridge Heath Road.
• A bomb taking out every building within 200 yards in all directions from the Stamford Hill Crossroads would be applauded by architects everywhere. Despite its excellent services, Homerton Hospital is architecturally dismal. Homerton Library is a gobsmackingly banal building
• Estate Housing Office in De Beauvoir
• Hackney Town Hall It stands for everything bad and corrupt in our area and in my life as a working class man,this is the base for the most corrupt,double standard management,governed & managed by left wing human right extremists. Who have had within the last 15 years, Scotland Yards fraud squad called in TWICE.It and the local system which resides inside it stands up for everything other than working class families who were born or who have lived here for most of their lives. The Council Tax is the highest in the country because of this reason and nothing else, with 1000's laundered,stolen and wasted year after year, with the near majority now living in the area,not having to pay virtually anything at all.
• Hackney Town Hall on Mare St., especially if the half wit employees are still in it.
• Tesco Morning Lane, if ever their was a carbuncle
• demolish now: the big red building thing near the fishbar (very close to the tube on bethnal green road) yech! well about 30% of bethnal green is crimes against architecture...
• Cafe Naz on Brick Lane. A pointless restaurant which attracts plenty of people due to the reputaion. Garish with average food and the worse service on Brick Lane (It even beats the Shampan which says a lot).
• Barclays opposite the Empire theatre.
• Chats Palace as it looks so odd in Chatsworth Road, actually don't demolish it move it to Mare Street. Some of these council estates and flats near the park end of chatsworth rd were scary and ugly for me when I was growing up. I use to cut through flats all the time, the ones on my road were horrid too.
• The new technology centre being built just next to Hackney Town Hall.
• Big old white clothing sweatshop on Well Street
• The Wick estate has gone so that is ok
• Not Pats place
• Newly-redecorated-in-tiger-stripes Hospital Tavern
• Musium of childhood cause its utterly boring
• Samuel Pepys
• Job Centre on Mare St - the most depressing place on Earth
• Wilton Way High School
• the houses on wilton way between navarino rd. and royal oak rd. i used to live in number 61
• The Nightingale Estate: it is a huge tip.

The Best Things

• Pie and Mash Shops. Kelly's Bethnal Green Road and the Roman Road. Best ever is Cooke's in the Broadway Market (Hackney). Area completely open to immigrants, it may be tough for them but they get accepted. East Londons real 'melting pot'.
• Growing up in Bethnal Green immediately after WW2, when bomb sites [the 'Debry']were playgrounds, kids swam in the Regents canal off the Viccy park bridge in Approach Road [with no ill effects], chips and beans upstairs in the other Pelicci's cafe in Green Street for 9d on a Saturday or pie and mash in Kelly's OR Cooke's [we were spoilt for choice] - the best grounding a youngster could ever have, but please, as any true Bethnal Greener should concur, we do not wish to be associated with other so called East End boroughs - the Green is the heartland, always and forever, it's bad enough hearing that areas east of the Lea are now regarded as the East end, what's it all coming to? London Pride is not just Noel Coward's great song but my feelings about my spiritual home, and I suspect, the feelings of many other contributors to this commendable site
• Great atmosphere for such an economically ravaged place Brilliant cultural life, with four decent and varied theatres, Ocean and a squillion galleries
• all the buses that leave Hackney behind
• Police back on the street beat, still not enough though. Cardinal Pole school, the best secondary school by far. It has nothing to hide, it never has had to change it's name to make it attractive, the results prove show year after year. The discipline should be benched marked by every other primary & secondary school in this problem area. If I ever won a large win on the Lottery, I would donate some of my winnings to this school.
• Great to see all sorts of colourful characters on the streets as soon as the sun comes out - got a real 'brooklyn' feel.
• The sense of community that still exists round Tudor Grove, Well St (apart from the odd shooting on Shore Road}
• Whats left of the Sally army building up in the back of Clapton.
• the best thing is Brick Lane, it is soo close to work in the City, so no relying on the crappy tube, the wifi collective Freetoair and consume.net spitalfields.
• The Hackney Empire (currently under refurbishment). Great fun in there. It takes risks with the bill and it pays off.
• Parks in the summer and walking to islington or Viccy Park along the canal.
• Even though my family and I moved out of Hackney and Bethnal Green when I was 6 years of age, alot of my most treasured memories are still there. We lived in Elderfield Rd off Chatsworth Road. We had a large house which spread across 3 floor. I can remember sliding down three sets of victorian banisters a daily ritual for me and my sis. Also playing in the dirty washing pile, we had loads and loads of washing back then, don't know where it came from as there was only my sis and me at that time. Playing out side and knocking for our friends who lived nearby. Walking on the astro turf near the ley bridge road fields(clapton pond end). Shopping in Chatsworth Road on Saturday. The school fetes were brilliant back then, the gorgeous biscuits and fairy cakes those mums would bake were heaven. The jumble sale were decent enough to scoop a bargain too. My dad would bring me and my sis to the wimpy near chats palace for a strawberry sundae. Our local hospital was Homerton Hospital, very gloomy it was. The ice-cream vans were regular too and you always near when they were coming. There was an family ice-cream company just off chatsworth road that sent out there vans from there too. can't remember what the name was. I honestly loved my teachers at Rushmore, Ms Stamford, Ms Garber Mrs Frith teachers were usually young pretty women back then. There was one evil indian teacher with her multi-coloured sari that would scare the hell outta us little uns. I really appreciated harvest day too, we were all told to bring in some food preferably non-perishable stuff to display in the main hall. They were piles and piles off tins and boxes collected over the weeks, I never ever found out where it went to at the end of the festival. I use to go to Chatsworth Road library, the pop -up books there were awesome. The book bus would also visit the schools in Hackney in the summer I think. There was never enough time to see all the great books especially those pop-up books which I was obsessed with. The best ice lollies came out in the 80's...funny feet, scary face, rocket, fab, screw balls and they were cheap too.
• New bars, restaurants and shops opening up almost every week on Broadway Market!
• Cycling through Victoria Park in the morning on the way to work
• My Mum cos she still lives there after 80 years, you get less for life..but I still call it home
• Childhood memorys.
• Pat Brookman lives there.. when not travelling ...
• Cafe Alba on sunday morning. The Approach. Is it a pub? A gallery? Fantastic beer & food, great quiz night & the most random mixture of customers. And a strong Arsenal theme. Brick Lane market. The Carpenters Arms. BackYard club. Edman Farm. The way people actually talk to you occasionally. Victoria Park. Everyone knows the Krays.
• The fact that the majority of people i know come from the Bethnal green area and the Macdonalds serves great burgers!
• Market - sells lots of stuff cheap in a lively atmosphere
• Hackney being full of lefties. Sandra in the Golden Heart. Lorenzo in the Pride, especially if he's pissed. The beer garden (!) of the Pepys. Viccy Park.
• Walking out of my front door and arriving in Victoria Park in the early morning as the sun burns off the mist.
• The female staff at the Samuel Pepy's
• The locals are the friendliest in London, no question, especially older folk. There¹s no pretention. What you see is what you get. Brick lane Bagel Bake. 24 Hour bagels, and sunday papers on a saturday night. Brick lane Market. Columbia Road Market. Nearness to town. (20 mins by tube. you can walk in less than an hour!) The Chutney Balti House on Bethnal Green Road is the best outside Bradford. Reg the old chap on Ramsey Street. Top East End Geezer. Even has a bent nose! The Golden Hart on Commercial Road (or is it street?) Near Spitalfields Market. Spitalfields market, especially the cuury stall, despite, miserable staff History: Absolutely AWASH with it
• Still a chirpy atmosphere, if you can get the old boys to come out
• The people of the 60's
• london fields with my brother bryan, taking my dog for walks, and playing football with my mates
• Stoke Newington, where the best parts of Hackney collect without to much violence. Clissold park is lovely in the summer.
• There's a house on stilts by the railway tracks behind Bethnal Green Road. Well, it's not really a house - it used to be a signal box or something - but it would still be a wonderful place to live. I once read a thing in a magazine which claimed that someone was living there, but I've never seen anyone come or go.
• The market on a Saturday

The Worst Things

• Smack addicts using my mums stairs as a shooting gallery :( Sad idiots with aggressive natures. Litter louts.
• Litter on the streets - an old fried chicken box for every inhabitant No public toilets. Hackney Council finally getting better, but still deserve every brickbat going for incompetently fasiling the good people of the Borough. Elected members and paid officers as bad as each other. Knife gangs in London Fields
• all the buses that stop at Hackney,the whole scummy place,infested with drug dealers/users,drunks and all the loud mouths that no other council wants.
• The Illegal Triple parking every Friday & Saturday nights outside the RnB Clubs Lower Clapton Road / Wick Road, no thought for anyone else,the Police can't perform their jobs or the law properly, and so they get away with it week after week (Ignorant C***s) The many Brand new houses, built,furnished and carpeted and given to Asylum seekers in the E8/E9 area. The general disintrest/care from a high percentage of Parents or Parent, who just dump their children out on the streets of Hackney at a very early age (Latch Key Kid Phenomenom)which leads to most of them getting caught up in street crimes. The massive under age crime problem, drug related and non drug related is caused initially, solely and purley by the parents who don't give a damn.
• Haccney Council - treats us all with patronising contempt.
• Tecso's, the scum druggies outside my flat and last but definatly not least the lovely local council.
• rude bastards, racists, the beggars in bethanl green tube that have turned begging into a systematic business, they even have shifts. Bethnal green tube staff are a bit dim! motorcades of 8 8-buses instead of being spaced out. woolies which is awful, the guys on brick lane that offer wine to tempt you inside. the complete bastards that rent out flats in Cityview house, and all the leeching estate agents near the tube station. If the world didn't have estate agents the world would be a better place.
• Road humps around the heavily Bengali tenements of Bethnal Green.
• Pikey boys around Haggerston park, get down to Job Club.
• I went to Rushmore Infants school which I thoroughly enjoyed. I found people alot nicer in general in Hackney than in Canning Town where I later went to school. When we left Hackney I went to school in Custom House near plaistow. My sister and I absolutely hated it, the kids and their parents were racist, two faced low-class individuals. The schools were also racists back then. The school dinners for muslim children was consisted of cheese, cheese flan, mash, carrots, processed peas eh all week..(they call it quiche now since neighbours arrived in UK)Fish finger or cod with chips on Fridays which was a god sent!!
• Too much rubbish on Mare Street, Broadway Market and especially Bush Road, where some idiots dump their old bath tubs!
• Everyone dumps their rubbish on your doorstep Abandoned cars from joyriding
• The litter, and the person who pees in my mum's lift, she's 80 and shouldn't be clearing up after some dirty beggar can't wait to get into their own home!!!!!!
• The person that said about the male posser from bow, i think i no who you mean and yeah i make u right!!! He thinks that he is gods gift but belive he isn't all that!!!! Where have u seen the posser from bow? Leave a message here next time you visit this site coz i reckon we are on about the same fella
• "Renovation" of the old Lord Rodneys into a chrome-effect bar. The 8 bus. And the N8. Edman Farm. The central line.
• All the violence and a male posser bow
• F*cking parking attendants and finding parking. Without a permit you might as well burn your cars and stick it right up their A**holes.
• Market - sells lots of cheap stuff in a hectic atmosphere
• Bethnal Green being full of racists. The 236. No-one, but no-one, seems to be able to drive without almost killing pedestrians.
• All those bloody art wankers that have moved into Brick lane area. Turning the area into the "new Notting Hill"? My arse. All it means is that people who have lived here for years can't afford it any more. Bugger off back to west London and take your Japanese Denim and rare trainers with you! Then I might be able to get a seat in the Golden Hart again!
• The male staff at the Samuel Pepy's The councils's inability to manage their finances
• Hackney Council - a bigger bunch of lazy, stupid, useless bastards would be hard to find. They are unutterably contemptible. Love to give away £4.4mil of property to squatters who think the world owes them a fucking living and then spend my poll tax on renovating them while my property crumbles around my ears. Also like to filter most of the traffic between Dalston and Hackney down one street - my street. Famous for having the worst schools in the country
• Distinct lack of decent pubs. Quite a few Œdodgy¹ areas. Locals can be a bit Œin yer face¹ cockney at times (but you get used to that) Not knowing if the bloke you accidentally spilt your pint on is a major gangster. The number 8 bus! Meant to be about a million an hour. In fact, about 3 an hour. Staff at Bethnal Green tube station are a bit thick. All the bloody trendy types moving in with trust funds, trying to slum it and patronising ther locals. Edman Farm Mini Markket on Bethnal Green Road. Smells of BO in summer, too. No decent non curry restsurants
• Not the place it used to be, everyone moves further east along the district line as they become more affluent
• crime
• going back in 1979 and being disappointed with the changes, although it was probably my conception of change
• The stereotype that 'Posh' people give it. Stoke Newington Police, the most corrupt police in the world.
• The worst thing about Hackney in my opinion is its reputation!!
• No tube

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

In most cases, the information in each section has been submitted by more than one contributor (the credits at the bottom of the page list some, but not all, of the contributors) and some of it dates back to the 1970s.

We make no claims as to the accuracy of the information in the Guide - our only purpose is to provide a forum for users to share their knowledge and opinions. So please keep a large bag of salt handy and be prepared to read between the lines!

If you disagree with a comment, or information is out of date, please submit an update! The contributors come from all walks of life, and their opinions are bound to be subjective, so if your view isn't represented, please speak up and contribute to the balance of the Guide. See below in the 'Have Your Say' section for how to add your voice.

If we have helped you out or made you laugh you can buy us a pint.

Have Your Say...

You can tell us more about Bethnal Green and Hackney. This is also the method to use if you want to correct some of the information already here. (But please remember you're not mailing the person who actually wrote whatever-it-is.)

You can use the add an event form to tell us about events happening in Bethnal Green and Hackney.

Or, if you'd just like to leave a message for other users of this site, take a look at The Knowhere Board (handy if you're just trying to get in touch with someone).

Credits

Last updated: 2007-11-06