Hackney

Hackney sits low and flat across east London, cut through by canals and rail lines and opened up by a scattering of proper green space. It's a borough of terraced streets and converted warehouses, of markets under railway arches and quiet squares that give way suddenly to a park or a stretch of water. The landscape here is shaped as much by what's been built on it over the decades as by anything natural, but the parks and waterways still give it room to breathe.

Clissold Park is the obvious lungful of green, a proper park with the kind of open lawns and old trees that make it feel like a village common got swallowed by the city. Down towards London Fields, the Lido gives the area its most distinctive landmark: an open-air pool that fills up on any decent day, surrounded by the park's flat green space and lined with people who've walked over from the surrounding streets.

Visitors tend to stay close to the action rather than out on the edges. Options range from the straightforward reliability of Premier Inn London Hackney and Travelodge London Hackney to smaller, more individual places like Avo Hotel and Hackney Guest Rooms, which put you right among the terraces and shopfronts rather than on a ring road somewhere.

Beyond the parks, Hackney's indoor options fill in the gaps on a wet day: Britannia Leisure Centre and Kings Hall Leisure Centre both offer swimming and sports facilities, while Kidzmania gives families with younger children somewhere to burn off energy. It's not an area built around big single attractions so much as a network of smaller, well-used spaces that locals actually rely on.