London's Lost Rivers - Book and Walking Tours by Paul Talling
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  • London's Lost Rivers
    • The Black Ditch
    • Bollo Brook
    • Carbuncle Ditch
    • The Cock & Pye Ditch
    • Counter's Creek
    • Earl's Sluice
    • River Effra
    • Falcon Brook
    • River Fleet
    • Hackney Brook
    • River Moselle
    • Muswell Stream
    • River Neckinger
    • Parr's Ditch
    • River Peck
    • Pudding Mill River
    • Rotherhithe Mill Streams
    • Stamford Brook
    • River Tyburn
    • Tyburn Brook
    • River Walbrook
    • River Westbourne
  • London's Lost Canals
    • City Canal
    • Croydon Canal
    • Cumberland Arm
    • Grand Surrey Canal
    • Grosvenor Canal
    • Kensington Canal
    • Romford Canal
    • Royal Arsenal Canal
    • The Royal Gunpowder Mills Canals
  • Author's Guided Walks
    • River Fleet Walk
    • River Tyburn Walk
    • River Westbourne Walk
    • Lost Rivers of Hampstead Walk
    • Lost Docks of Wapping Walk
    • Grand Surrey Canal Walk
    • Woolwich - Dockyard & Royal Arsenal Canal Walk
    • Isle of Dogs Canal and Millwall Docks Walk
    • Derelict Limehouse & Poplar Walk
    • Derelict Silvertown walk
    • River Peck/Earl's Sluice
    • Bow Creek
    • River Neckinger walk
    • Croydon Canal Walk
    • Hammersmith Walk
    • East Finchley to Gospel Oak
    • Whitechapel and Bethnal Green walk
    • Minories to Poplar
  • Buy The Book Here
    • Sample Chapter
    • Reviews
  • London's Lesser Known Rivers
    • Beverley Brook
    • Bow Backs Rivers
    • River Brent
    • River Ching
    • River Crane
    • River Cray
    • River Darent
    • Dead River
    • Dollis Brook
    • Duke of Northumberland's River
    • River Ember
    • Hogsmill River
    • River Lea
    • River Mole
    • The New River
    • River Pool
    • River Ravensbourne
    • River Roding
    • The Silk Stream
    • River Wandle
    • Yeading Brook
  • Contact/Mailing List
  • Advertising on London's Lost Rivers
  • Privacy Policy/Cookies
  • London's Lost Music Venues
  • Home
  • London's Lost Rivers
    • The Black Ditch
    • Bollo Brook
    • Carbuncle Ditch
    • The Cock & Pye Ditch
    • Counter's Creek
    • Earl's Sluice
    • River Effra
    • Falcon Brook
    • River Fleet
    • Hackney Brook
    • River Moselle
    • Muswell Stream
    • River Neckinger
    • Parr's Ditch
    • River Peck
    • Pudding Mill River
    • Rotherhithe Mill Streams
    • Stamford Brook
    • River Tyburn
    • Tyburn Brook
    • River Walbrook
    • River Westbourne
  • London's Lost Canals
    • City Canal
    • Croydon Canal
    • Cumberland Arm
    • Grand Surrey Canal
    • Grosvenor Canal
    • Kensington Canal
    • Romford Canal
    • Royal Arsenal Canal
    • The Royal Gunpowder Mills Canals
  • Author's Guided Walks
    • River Fleet Walk
    • River Tyburn Walk
    • River Westbourne Walk
    • Lost Rivers of Hampstead Walk
    • Lost Docks of Wapping Walk
    • Grand Surrey Canal Walk
    • Woolwich - Dockyard & Royal Arsenal Canal Walk
    • Isle of Dogs Canal and Millwall Docks Walk
    • Derelict Limehouse & Poplar Walk
    • Derelict Silvertown walk
    • River Peck/Earl's Sluice
    • Bow Creek
    • River Neckinger walk
    • Croydon Canal Walk
    • Hammersmith Walk
    • East Finchley to Gospel Oak
    • Whitechapel and Bethnal Green walk
    • Minories to Poplar
  • Buy The Book Here
    • Sample Chapter
    • Reviews
  • London's Lesser Known Rivers
    • Beverley Brook
    • Bow Backs Rivers
    • River Brent
    • River Ching
    • River Crane
    • River Cray
    • River Darent
    • Dead River
    • Dollis Brook
    • Duke of Northumberland's River
    • River Ember
    • Hogsmill River
    • River Lea
    • River Mole
    • The New River
    • River Pool
    • River Ravensbourne
    • River Roding
    • The Silk Stream
    • River Wandle
    • Yeading Brook
  • Contact/Mailing List
  • Advertising on London's Lost Rivers
  • Privacy Policy/Cookies
  • London's Lost Music Venues
London's Lost Rivers - Book and Walking Tours by Paul Talling
Hackney Brook

​​London's Lost Rivers - HACKNEY BROOK

Hackney Brook - Brook Road E5 - watery clues in streetnames
As ever - the streetnames give a watery clue!
Hackney Brook - Grazebrook Road London E16 - watery clues in streetnames
Hackney Brook - Ponsford St - watery clues in streetnames
Hackney Brook - Well Street  E9 - watery clues in streetnames
London's Lost Rivers - Hackney Brook's outfall into the River Lea near Old Ford Lock can be seen by way of a small arch while the main sewer network crosses overhead.
Hackney Brook's outfall into the River Lea near Old Ford Lock can be seen by way of a small arch while a main sewer network crosses overhead.
The Hackney Brook rose at two points near the Holloway Road in Islington which then joined up just before flowing past the Highbury football stadium through Clissold Park and Stoke Newington’s Abney Park Cemetery skirting Hackney Downs, crossing Mare Street in Hackney through Homerton and flowed down to Hackney Wick before meeting the River Lea near Old Ford Lock.

The name Hackney is of Danish origin - Haca's Eoth which means Haca's well-watered marsh - “Hack” is derived from Haca, a Danish nobleman who once owned the land in or around 450 AD. Mare Street takes its name from a pond or mere near where Hackney Central Railway Station now is – forming part of Hackney Brook. Around the 17th century there used to be a ducking stool here whereby petty criminals were strapped to a chair which was fastened to a long wooden beam fixed as a seesaw on the edge of the river and dunked into the river as a method of law enforcement through social humiliation.


Until the late 1830s, the brook was a substantial river, 10 metres wide in full flood at Stoke Newington and up to 30 metres wide at its junction with the Lea. However, by the 1850s much of the Brook had been covered over and the open portions were an open sewer. The Metropolitan Board of Works constructed its northern high-level sewer in 1860 to a design by Sir Joseph Bazalgette to contain the brook.

Outside the gates of Stoke Newington Cemetery there was once a ford and crossing called Stamford Bridge basically consisting of stepping stones across the Brook. Here, when the excavations for the high-level main sewer were in progress a Stone Age implements, estimated as 200,000 years old, were unearthed. Also found were war weapons such as swords dating from the 15th century Battle of Barnet during the War of the Roses.

In Hackney, the river ran through the northern part of Clissold Park, two lakes mark the original course of the Hackney Brook. They are, however, these days fed by mains water from the fountain. Aside from street names with such names as “brook” and “ford” there is little to remind  residents of Hackney Brook apart from, it's been said, the occasionally flooded cellar after a heavy storm.
London's Lost Rivers - Hackney Then and now showing the Hackney Brook
Left pic- an engraving by MA Gliddon showing Hackney in 1830 with Hackney Brook in the foreground and Right pic - the scene of modern day Hackney.The building near the centre top of the engraving is the Hackney Proprietary Grammar school which opened that same year but demolished in the the 1950s.
London's Lost Rivers by Paul Talling. All images are copyright.