To celebrate Valentines Day, Hackney Council held its second annual ‘I love Hackney’ fair in Town Hall Square yesterday. We’ve been running a competition to find people’s favourite place in the boroug
To celebrate Valentines Day, Hackney Council held its second annual ‘I love Hackney’ fair in Town Hall Square yesterday.
We’ve been running a competition to find people’s favourite place in the borough – part of our campaign to improve the image of Hackney across the capital.
As one of the five Host Boroughs for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, we have a fantastic opportunity to get Hackney the reputation it deserves.
People’s perceptions of the borough are stuck in its crime-ridden past. The build-up to the Games provides a platform to showcase all the good things – our cultural diversity and rapidly improving quality of life, with the seventh cleanest streets in London and crime down 16 per cent in the last year alone.
Unlike Newham, Hackney is not going to experience big architectural changes. But the development of the rail infrastructure for 2012 will have a huge impact, bringing a ‘tube-style’ service to Hackney and – with it – more visitors, who will at last be able to enjoy the borough’s outstanding cultural and leisure attractions.
And the extra attention we receive through the Games will get all these improvements more widely noticed. Our goal is to be famous rather than infamous, and all the glamour and excitement of the build-up to 2012 will ensure that Hackney is known for something more than its past.
