Hackney, now a borough in London's East End, began as several small settlements in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Due to its close proximity to London, the parish became a fashionable retreat for the wealthy in the area, including aldermen, nobles, courtiers, and eventually, Bank of England Directors. By the eighteenth century, Hackney was said to be the most opulent village in England. Offering a comprehensive examination of Hackney's history, the work then describes the canals, railways, factories, and working-class tenements that grew in Hackney during the nineteenth century, and continues the industrial progression into the twentieth century. Drastic demographic changes and the spread of public housing developments have left Hackney ridden with poverty in the 1990s, but the author sees hope for the borough in the beginnings of renewed gentrification. Thoroughly and originally researched, this work is indespensible to local historians.