Living in Haggerston: area guide to homes, schools and transport links

The small East End neighbourhood of Haggerston is bookended by the lovely conservation areas of De Beauvoir Town — where the family Benyon Estate still owns and lets more than 370 homes — and Graham Road and Mapledene in London Fields, with its roads of early Victorian houses.

In the Domesday Book, Haggerston was known as Hergotestane; on Rocque’s 1745 map it was called Agostone; and by the 19th century the name had migrated to Haggerstone, very close to today’s Haggerston.

Two events nearly two centuries apart have shaped the area. The first was the opening of the local section of the Regent’s Canal in 1820 which brought industry to this small rural village.

The second was the opening of the Overground on the former East London Line in 2010 which led to Haggerston being discovered as an unusual mixed-use area where office, workshop and residential uses all rub along happily together.

Estate agent Bradley Suter from the local branch of Savills in Kingsland Road has been selling homes in Haggerston for 12 years and has seen big changes.

“The arrival of the Overground had an unexpectedly positive effect. Haggerston still has a creative vibe but over the last five years or so many more buyers are coming from the City and buyers can now expect to pay around £950 a square foot.”

Examples of Haggerston creativity include local residents planting a green corridor along the canal; an award-winning new comprehensive school with a ground-breaking design; a housebuilder shoehorning a new primary school on to a tight site along with new homes; a development of canalside workspaces in shipping containers, and an application to build 121 co-living spaces on a former timber yard in Kingsland Road, which is now before Hackney council planners.

The Wildlife Gardeners of Haggerston, led by Gideon Corby and Esther Adelman, have been donning their waders and planting green verges and floating islands in and around the Kingsland Basin, adding pockets of greenery that attract wildlife and provide a home for nesting swans, coots and moorhens.

The Bridge Academy between Laburnum Street and the canal is one of Haggerston’s landmarks.

The award-winning building designed by architects BDP, which opened in 2008, curves around a large central courtyard sheltered from the weather by a huge tent-like cushion roof. Built over seven levels with galleried learning spaces, it makes the most of a small site.

Developer Thornsett got together with the Benyon Estate and the Education Funding Agency to create the Hackney New Primary School for 350 pupils together with a tower of 68 new homes on the site of a former fire station in Kingsland Road.

Containerville in Corbridge Crescent has three storeys of 78 stacked shipping containers converted for use as offices. The brainchild of property company The Max Barney Estate, each container has room for six workers and is designed for start-ups who don’t want to get tied up with long leases.

More controversial, though, are plans, also by the Benyon Estate, to build 121 co-living flats on a former timber yard in Kingsland Road overlooking the Kingsland Basin.

Co-living flats come without kitchens and living rooms but with shared facilities and are either seen as an imaginative solution to London’s housing crisis and a way of tackling loneliness and isolation — or a cynical way for developers to sell overpriced bedsits.

Residents around the Kingsland Basin are protesting about noise from the communal terrace.

Haggerston is three-and-a-half miles from central London with Dalston to the north; Victoria Park to the east; Bethnal Green to the south and Hoxton and Islington to the west.

The Property Scene

There are fine period houses, mainly early and mid-Victorian, in De Beauvoir Town and in London Fields but Haggerston also has warehouse conversions and new blocks of mainly medium-rise flats built over the last 10 years, plus estates of social housing.

The Jesus Hospital Estate around the Columbia Road Sunday flower market has roads of tiny, straight-off-the-street Victorian terrace houses.

There are homes currently on the market in two of Haggerston’s best addresses. In De Beauvoir Square a four-bedroom house is for sale for £2.4 million and in Albion Square another four-bedroom house is for sale for £2.35 million.

New-build homes

In Hackney Road there are three developments: HKR, Shoreditch Exchange and Hide. HKR is an LBS Properties development of 66 studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, of which five are in the “affordable” category.

The building, designed by architects Hawkins\Brown, has a weathered steel exterior and a fifth-floor communal garden, and will be ready to move into early next year.

The studios start at £535,000, with one-bedroom flats at £700,000, two-bedroom flats at £729,000 and three-bedroom flats at £1.23 million. Call joint agents Savills and Knight Frank (020 3908 3999).

Shoreditch Exchange is a mixed-use development from Regal London in four blocks on both sides of Hackney Road close to Hoxton Overground station.

There are 184 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats in three blocks arranged around landscaped courtyards with communal roof terraces.

Designed by architects AHMM, these homes will be ready to move in to spring next year. The one-bedroom flats start at £785,000, while the two-bedroom flats start at £910,000 and three-bedroom flats at £1.23 million.

A further nine flats will be available on the other side of Hackney Road, where some original buildings are being retained. Call 020 3151 0620.

Hide offers nine flats either side of St Augustine’s Church by developer Artform, ready to move into in January. The show flat is designed by Scenesmith with bespoke joinery by Lozi Designs.

One-bedroom flats start at £600,000; two-bedroom flats at £850,000 and three-bedroom flats at £1.2 million. Call The Modern House (020 3795 5920).

First-time buyers

Help to Buy is available on the one-bedroom flats at Hide (as before).

Hackney council is rebuilding the Colville Estate in Branch Place, replacing 432 homes with 900 new homes, some for shared ownership. Call Hackney Homes on 020 8356 4364.

Renting

Haggerston is not a busy rental area, which is unusual for a neighbourhood with so many new blocks of flats.

Rents range from £1,374 for a one-bedroom period conversion in Albion Drive to £2,999 a month for a three-bedroom flat in Benyon Wharf and £3,250 for a three-bedroom period terrace house in Shrubland Road. The Benyon Estate has homes of varying sizes to rent. Call 020 7249 3690.

Transport

Haggerston and Hoxton are both stops on the Overground with trains to Shoreditch High Street, Dalston Junction and Highbury & Islington. London Fields has trains to Liverpool Street.

There are three useful commuter buses: No 149 goes to London Bridge via Liverpool Street; No 242 to Aldgate via Shoreditch High Street and No 243 to Waterloo via Old Street and Holborn.

Hoxton station is in Zone 1 and Haggerston and London Fields are in Zone 2; an annual travelcard to Zone 1 is £1,404.

Staying power

Family houses in De Beauvoir Town and London Fields are often owned for a generation.

Postcode

Haggerston south of Regent’s Canal is in the E2 Bethnal Green postcode; London Fields is in E8, the Hackney postcode, and De Beauvoir Town is in N1.

Best roads

Albion Square and De Beauvoir Square; in London Fields it is Lavender Grove, Mapledene Road and Malvern Road. Reliance Wharf and De Beauvoir Wharf are popular new developments overlooking Kingsland Basin.

Up and coming

The area around Branch Place is undergoing major regeneration with Hackney council rebuilding the Colville Estate.

Council

Hackney council is Labour controlled. Band D council tax for 2019/2020 is £1,454.86.

Shops and restaurants

Broadway Market is where locals congregate on Saturdays to browse the stalls, eat street food and catch up on the local gossip.

The street has mainly independent shops, cafés and restaurants although upmarket toiletries chain Aesop and pizza restaurant Franco Manca have branches here.

There are three bookshops, plus Hill & Szrok which describes itself as “a small herd whole carcass butcher by day and a neighbourhood restaurant by night”, and Climpson & Sons, a famous coffee shop and roaster. Round the corner in Westgate Street, Netil Market has more street food stalls.

Where Haggerston merges with Bethnal Green and Hoxton along Hackney Road there has been a proliferation of bars and restaurants in recent years, most notably the Marksman pub and restaurant; Morito, a small plates outpost from Clerkenwell’s Spanish and Moroccan restaurant Moro; and wine bar Sager + Wilde.

Mama Shelter is the first London venue for the hip French hotel chain and Ozone in Emma Street is a new coffee shop and coffee roaster.

The Towpath Café is a popular brunch spot on the canal near De Beauvoir Crescent and Toconoco is a tiny child-friendly Japanese café at the far end of Kingsland Basin. Favourites of local Savills agent Bradley Suter are Curio Cabal coffee shop; Shed wine bar and coffee shop, and the North African grill Berber & Q, all close to his Kingsland Road office.

London’s famous Sunday flower market is along Columbia Road.

Open space

Haggerston is a dense urban area but there are also lots of green spaces and canalside walks.

Haggerston Park, established on a former gas works, has a BMX track and a community food-growing area and is home to Hackney City Farm which has a popular café.

London Fields has two children’s playgrounds, a paddling pool, outdoor gym, wildflower meadow and heated lido.

Shoreditch Park is in line for some improvements; it currently has football and rugby pitches and a giant boulder for rock climbing.

Victoria Park, one of London’s most famous Victorian parks, is a short walk away.

Leisure and the arts

Geffrye Museum of the Home in Kingsland Road, in former almshouses with a café and garden, explores home life from 1600 to the present day, with room sets.

The Architecture Foundation has funded a temporary events space overlooking the canal in Laburnum Street for the last three years. This year the Potemkin Theatre is a colourful tower, designed by architects Maich Swift and inspired by Monsieur Hulot’s tumbledown house in Jacques Tati’s film, Mon Oncle.

The nearest council-owned swimming pool is at Britannia Leisure Centre in Hyde Road. The centre remains open while the council builds a new leisure centre and a new home for the City of London Academy Shoreditch Park.

Haggerston Baths in Whiston Street is a listed Victorian baths, which the local community campaigned to save, now being turned into work space.

A free school, Hackney New School, in Kingsland Road, opened in 2012 for pupils ages 11 to 16 with a music specialism.

Ofsted, the Government’s education watchdog, recently judged it “inadequate” after five headteachers left in two years and the entire board of governors resigned.

The school is now being run by Community Schools Trust, which runs the “outstanding” Forest Gate School.

Primary schools

The linked Hackney New Primary School in Downham Road — due to move into new premises on the former fire station site in Kingsland Road — is judged to be “outstanding”.

The other local “outstanding” state primary schools are: St John the Baptist CofE in Crondall Street; Shoreditch Park in Bridport Place; Queensbridge in Queensbridge Road; Sebright in Audrey Street; St Paul’s with St Michael’s CofE in Brougham Road; Holy Trinity CofE in Beechwood Road, and London Fields in Westgate Street. Gayhurst in Gayhurst Road is also very popular; it is judged to be “good”.

Comprehensive

The “outstanding” comprehensive schools are: Mulberry Academy Shoreditch (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Cosset Street, and Central Foundation Boys’ (ages 11 to 18) in Cowper Street.

Those rated “good” are: The Bridge Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Laburnum Street and Haggerston (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Weymouth Terrace, with listed mid-century buildings designed by Ernő Goldfinger.

City of London Academy Shoreditch Park (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Goldsmiths Row opened in September 2017 and has not yet been inspected by Ofsted.

Private

There are two private primary schools: Rosemary Works (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Branch Place and The Lyceum (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Worship Street.

The two private City of London schools are a bus ride away. The boys’ school (ages 10 to 18) is in Queen Victoria Street and the girls’ school (ages seven to 18) is in St Giles’ Terrace in the Barbican.