A month of walks, talks and films in and about Hackney — plus two super-packed weekends of lectures — celebrate the east London borough's history this summer.
Hackney History Festival is a biggie, taking place across a slew of museums, cinemas and historic venues in May. Throughout the month there are walks, to name a few:
🪧 Hackney During the 1926 General Strike (3 May): learn how the area was badly affected by strikes 100 years ago... and even join in singing an anthem of resistance from the time!
👨🏿 Stoke Newington Black History Quest (20 May): this self-guided treasure hunt leads you to uncover stories of abolitionists, stars and little-known lives in the area's Caribbean and African diaspora.
🌴 Walking Backwards through Time: Loddiges Nursery (30 May): In the 18th and 19th century, the hothouses of Loddiges Nursery contained all manner of exotic palms, ferns and orchids. Here, maps, images and stories help bring it back to life.
The weekends of 9-10 May and 16-17 May see a particularly packed roster, with experts illuminating you with lectures on public baths, poster designers, pie 'n' mash — and plenty of things that don't begin with a P too. Among the happenings over those four days are:
🇻🇳 Well Settled: Archiving Vietnamese histories in Hackney (9 May): A reflective talk on the An Việt Foundation, established in Hackney in 1981, and now the largest British-Vietnamese archive collection in the UK.
🏊 The Rise, Fall and Return of Hackney's Public Baths (10 May): Public baths used to be far more than a form of leisure and exercise — they also kept the poorer denizens of London clean and hygienic. This Sutton House talk dips into the importance of places like Eastway Baths in Hackney Wick, in an era before the NHS.
👻 Ghost Shop Signs: Accidental Finds, Briefly Revealing Lost Shops (16 May): Amir Dotan peels away the layers of Hackney's past to reveal some of its most beautiful ghost signs, which tell us not only about the area's long-lost businesses, but also the fading art of sign writing.
🎥 Secrets from the Savoy Cinema, Stoke Newington Road (17 May): Friend of Londonist Nigel Smith loves his cinemas; this time, he's honing in on the Savoy, and a box of ephemera from the 1960s discovered during its redevelopment, which tells us a lot about the decline of London's cinemas at this time.
All talks and walks cost just £3 each — check out the full line-up.
There are also a number of satellite events happening across May, including tower climbs, cemetery walks, behind-the-scenes theatre tours, Charlie Peel's new maps of old Hackney superimposed on the new, and lots more. Many of these events are free, although booking is suggested.
Hackney History Festival, walks and satellite events throughout may, with two weekends packed with talks on 9-10 May and 16-17 May 2026.
