Hackney, the worst place to live in Britain?

[MrsOhHu]

It certainly is bad if you need the council to do anything. It's really bad. It is a place for criminals run by criminals. It also has some fantastic people, good houses and lovely green space. Sadly Hackney is losing a lot of the people a borough should be proud of.

Not that we are people it was particularly proud of, but it lost me and DH years ago.

What's triggered your sudden disillusionment?

I work in Hackney and did live there too, but now live in muswell Hill, vast difference! Back to the subject, Hackney is a vibrant and raw area, and best enjoyed when you can get away. When I lived there I got a bit depressed with all the yellow police boards everywhere. But, the area is improving.

Definitely 'best enjoyed when you can get away'!

When we moved into our flat there was a yellow 'Did You See This Stabbing?' board in our doorway. I guess they don't call it the Murder Mile for nothing...

i love living in hackney

Read 'Vibrant' as Shuddering. Our area was once full of light industry. Now it is full of gangs, drugs, people smugglers, pimps, prostitutes, guns and knives. Council planning has caused this misery and they take no responsibility. It is not the middle classes who suffer from council policy.

where are you in hackney mrsohhu?

I live just one street into Hackney, v close to the border with Islington and Haringey and it's fine. My one gripe is that we're so far from all the services etc that I would be better off living in Islington (though we get to use their library )

My children go to school in Hackney, and we live on the other side of the road from the borough boundary.

Can't see what most of the fuss is about, really. You can get mugged in Kensington & Chelsea just as easily. The school is fine -- lots of bouncy little kids doing what little children do. Admittedly my children have a slightly, shall we say, wider vocabulary than their prep-school educated cousins, but they know better than to use it in my hearing. And by the age of 5 my ds had already learnt to decode the semiotics of the crew-cut-with-Nike-swoosh-shaved-in-accessorised-with-diamond-earstud look, and decided against it. What more can you ask?

i love living in hackney, it has its problems, but so does anywhere else, i would not walk around with my phone/ipod/purse on show, but i wouldnt do that anywhere else either, its just common sense.

hi lanismum, how's your mountain buggy (essential for urban grit i find!)?

I love Hackney too, the whole finding a decentish school thing is a bit stressfull though.

waves to hoxtonchick
Well technically in Tower Hamlets, but I like it....also less steep than Muswell Hill, the Umbrian hilltown of North London...

hi kp, must ring you!

continuing hijack
Yes and throw mad boys together again sometime (actually only mine seem mad )

What a lit of mn people live in Hackney! I'm in Clapton just bt Murder Mile. I like the people who live in Hackney, but the council is something else. Does anyone know ant swimming pools in Hackney that are open? The Murder Weekly hasn't had a story on the London Fields lido, has it?

hoxtonchick, the mountain buggy is great, the best buggy i ever bought, am expecting another baby in april, and if i need a double ill go with the mb double.
mrsohhu, the london fields lido is open, but iv not been over there yet, theres also britannia leisure centre pool thats next to pitfield street roundabout, but depends if you want a pool for proper swimming, its better for young kids.

Put it this way. Winchester, the best place to live in Britain? No way. ZZZzzzzzz. Boring!

That programme was so superficial, arrogant and up its own.... You know what I mean! Nuf said.

I think Winchester gets a good bashing in Crap Towns, but so does Hackney! I also don't think it's supposed to be taken literally. Hackney has an appalling council. I would not be at all surprised if Hackney has the worst council in Britain. Most councils do not deliberately create ghettos and invite criminals to the borough through their policies. Hackney council is either very very stupid or very very naive. It's not much fun living in a place where taxi drivers avoid and people don't like to walk because of the gangs and the guns. It is a very real problem and one that is not being taken seriously by the council.

Yes Hackney has a struggling council. Haringey's used to be worse but, dare I say it, it appears to have been improving over the few years. Would this be because of the councillors? Maybe because of a few dedicated souls but, on the whole I believe it comes from better Chief Executive leadership and the team of council officers. Because they are paid they can also be required to have the right skills for running council services. I don't know what is going on in Hackney at the moment but, it wasn't long ago that it was millions in debt and the govt installed their own CEO to supposedly sort things out.

I loved living in Hackney and miss it like hell now I'm stuck in suburban commuterville. Dull-o.

Never had a problem there, never got any hassle, never felt unsafe. In fact I feel considerably less safe on the streets of my town on a Saturday night than I ever did on Murder Mile.

Ther's so much going on and loads for kids. London Fields, Victoria Park, Broadway Market, the City farm - you can do posh or you can slum it, it's fantastic.

Ohhh, I'd move back tomorrow.

I am glad that Haringey is improving! We've lived in Hackney for 10 years now and where we live has got much much worse. The govt. has brought in a thing called Team Hackney to sort out some of the probs but there are whispers that they are not interested in Clapton. It's a very sad and sorry state. I've heard that Brittania swimming pool is closed now too.

britannia is closed until the new year. london fields is a brilliant place to live.

glad you're pleased with your m. buggy lanismum, & congrats on your pregnancy.

no brittania is still open, i take dd swimming there every week, well, erm, most weeks, havent been for 3 weeks due to lazyitis, but as far as i know its still open.