The Hackney Brook is one of the subterranean rivers of London. It crossed the northern parts of the current London boroughs of Hackney and Islington, emptying into the River Lea at Hackney Wick, with its source in Holloway. The subterranean or underground rivers of London are the tributaries of the River Thames that were built over during the growth of the metropolis of London. ... Hackney Town Hall was built in the 1930s for the old Metropolitan Borough. ... Arms of Islington London Borough Council Islington Town Hall Islington is a borough of London to the north of the City of London, west of Hackney, east of Camden, and south of Haringey. ... This article is not about the River Lee that flows through Cork, in the Republic of Ireland; see River Lee (Ireland). ... The Lee River at Hackney Wick from the Eastway bridge, August 2005. ... Holloway may refer to: Persons: Adam Holloway (contemporary), English politician A.J. Holloway (contemporary), American politician, Mayor of Biloxi, Mississippi Brenda Holloway (1946–), American singer and songwriter Bryan R. Holloway (contemporary), American politician from North Carolina Harry Travis Holloway (1952-present)- Baptist Minister) Grace Baptist Church, Erwin, TN John Holloway...

Course of the River

The eastern lake at Clissold Park, Stoke Newington, one of two that mark the original course of the Hackney Brook. It is, however, fed by mains water from the fountain seen here. (January 2006)

In Hackney, the course of the river took it through the northern part of Clissold Park, where its course is now marked by two lakes. However, these are now fed from the main water supply, not the brook. It must at some point here - and in some fashion - have crossed the artificial New River, which flows at right angles to the brook and leaves the park to the south. Clissold Park is a popular community park located in Stoke Newington within the London Borough of Hackney. ... The Castle Climbing Centre, once the main Water Board pumping station. ... Clissold Park is a popular community park located in Stoke Newington within the London Borough of Hackney. ... The New River may refer to: The New River, a man-made watercourse in England The New River that flows into the Atlantic Ocean in southeastern North Carolina in the United States. ...

It then wandered through Abney Park Cemetery to cross Stamford Hill (the road) to run along the north side of Stoke Newington Common. At this point, builders found, in the 1860s, very early evidence of human occupation in the form of 200,000-year old palaeolithic flint axes, which were being made on the banks of the brook. These are among the earliest human artefacts found in Britain. Abney Park Cemetery—every turn of the path reveals a new and unique landscape (September 2005). ... Stoke Newington Common is dissected by this railway cutting and two busy roads. ... In Europe and Africa the Middle Paleolithic or Palaeolithic is the period of the middle Paleolithic (early Stone Age) that lasted between around 120,000 and 40,000 years ago. ... Pebble beach made up of flint nodules eroded out of the nearby chalk cliffs, Cape Arkona, Rügen Flint (or flintstone) is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline silica rock with a glassy appearance. ...

From here, the brook followed the western side of Hackney Downs, then ran south-east to cross Dalston Lane and Mare Street in central Hackney near Bohemia Place. Many 18th and 19th-century illustrations show the ford here, which was at the bend in the road where the North London Railway bridge now crosses Mare Street. From here it ran through Homerton and Hackney Wick to join the Lea. Hackney Downs from the centre of the Downs looking northeast. ... Dalston is a place in Hackney in the London Borough of Hackney, England. ... The Hackney Empire is one of the oldest surviving music halls in Britain. ... Originally called the East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway and opened between 1850 and 1852, the railway linked the docks at Blackwall to Camden Town. ... Hackney Hospital, August 2005. ...

In its heyday, up until the late 1830s, the brook was a substantial river, 10 metres wide in full flood at Stoke Newington and perhaps 30 metres wide at its junction with the Lea.

Disappearance

Although much of the Hackney Brook had already been covered over by 1856, local population growth in the area had turned the open portions into little more than an open sewer. In response to this, the Metropolitan Board of Works constructed its northern high-level sewer in 1860 to a design by Sir Joseph Bazalgette to contain the brook and its many tributaries. The sewer followed the course of the brook as far as Hackney Church Street (now Mare Street), but then struck south to cross Victoria Park, joining the larger sewer network at Old Ford. Subsequent sewerage building has resulted in the Hackney Brook becoming quite untraceable, lost somewhere in the subterranean labyrinth of piping. The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the principal instrument of London-wide government from 1855 until the establishment of the London County Council in 1889. ... Memorial to Sir Joseph Bazalgette on Victoria Embankment Sir Joseph William Bazalgette (28 March 1819 – 15 March 1891) was one of the great Victorian civil engineers. ... The Bathing Pond in Victoria Park. ... Old Ford is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and traditionally considered part of Bow The North London Railway had a line through the area with a station at Old Ford. ...

References

• A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume X Hackney introduction
• ibid Hackney public services