Is Newington Green the New London Fields?
Words by Christina Dean
Move over E8, there’s a new Hackney hotspot
London Fields, the corner of Hackney that’s home to the namesake park and Broadway Market, first started to attract the city’s creatives and cool kids after they became priced out of Shoreditch. As the tech firms and property developers got a foothold in E1 and E2, the cheaper rents in E8 drew people to the other side of Regent’s Canal. The limited transport options kept the prices down, while the weekly food market on Broadway Market and the fact that you could BBQ in the park, kept the fun factor high.
Lower rents + community vibe = perfect environment for indie stores, pubs, neighbourhood restaurants, wine bars, bakeries and coffee spots to flourish. Throw in the enduring popularity of the Saturday market and viral food traders setting up in Netil Market (Pockets, we’re looking at you), and it’s no wonder London Fields has become a magnet for people all over the city.
What happens when a neighbourhood becomes a destination? Gentrification of course! There’s now a Planet Organic on Broadway Market and pie & mash shop F. Cooke, which had been trading for 120 years, has become an eyewear boutique. And there’s just more people flocking to the area than ever. You can’t BBQ in London Fields any more because the littering got so bad that Hackney Council banned it. The Standard called the Hackney Highway (between Columbia Road and London Fields) London’s unofficial catwalk. The area is a living, breathing @socks_house_meetings meme. It’s chaos on a Saturday.
But that’s alright because there’s a new spot to hang out in….enter Newington Green. Just south of Stoke Newington proper, between Highbury and Dalston, this pocket of open space and its surrounding streets, is where those in the know are heading. While it’s hardly a hidden gem – lauded restaurants including Primeur (opened in 2014), Perilla (opened in 2016) and Jolene (opened in 2018) are knocking on the door of a decade in business – it’s got the array of indie operators, local institutions (hello the Mildmay Club) and the greenery that London Fields has, without as much gentrification (yet).
Need to pick up some produce? Newington Green Fruit & Veg does some of the best fresh goods in town; Gallo Nero is filled with Italian treats; Jumi Cheese has your Swiss cheese needs covered; you can stock up on natural wine at Yield N16; and you can shop plastic-free at Lily’s Refill.
Stella’s, an offshoot of Broadway Market’s Hill & Szrok, will supply you with top quality meat during the day and then spin tunes by night, because why just be a butchers when you can also be a listening bar? At Oeno Maris, the fishmongers just two doors down, you can come for your fish shopping, and stay for sashimi and natural vino.
For the times when you don’t wanna do the shopping, or the cooking, you’re spoiled for choice. In what is actually a very small radius, you can find bibimbap at Babsang, Galician specialties at Tranga, proper Thai cooking at Korat Thai Cafe, Neapolitan pizza at O Vita Pizza, fish and chips at Fish on the Green, and Eritrean and Ethiopian food at Laza. You could start the day with coffee and a boujee brunch at Lot 103, head to Lizzy’s on the Green for a brew and a cake, go to supper club spot Canto 73 for a seven-course dinner and swing by wine bar Cadet for one last snack and a nightcap.
Newington Green has got the variety and, for now at least, it’s got the community too – as one local business owner told us, “it’s like London Fields, only without the c****s”. Given that Stokey, like much of Hackney, has been a hotspot for gentrification, who knows how long it’ll last.
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