Hackney Downs

As good a place as any to prepare for the zombie apocalypse. The Downs is, as ever plain, though it has improved in recent years in terms of cleanliness. you no longer fear for your life as you enter via one of the underpasses. It’s a decent space, with football pitches, rounders pitches, basketball courts and a playground for the kids. I haven’t been brave enough to use the water fountains other than for the dog but she seems to love them. You’ll more than likely walk past someone who smells distinctly of weed, but even that is an improvement from the past. Say what you like about the gentrification of London and Hackney, but it at least makes walking the dog a pleasant experience.
Please do admire the houses on the northern most end of the Downs. They are mostly all actual houses, huge as they seem to be, but they will soon be flats, as will the new development on the west side. All to make the most of the academy on the east.

Woah, this park stretches on for distances.
You’ll never be along in Hackney Downs. It’s open 24 hours a day and there’s always someone playing football or tossing a Frisbee or having a picnic. I assume there are people there in the wee hours of the night too, but I’ve never been and don’t plan on it (still, if you wanted to, you could hang out with them.)
There is a beautiful pavilion at the centre of the park and in the summer you can hear live music. It is also built on land that overlooks the city so you get a great view of some of the city’s well known buildings./
It’s even bigger than it looks. Walking from one end to the other is a serious walk, making it a nice spot to jog.
Some of the last could be better maintained than others, but overall, solid. A little too far away to be my everyday park but a nice spot to visit for sure.

The reasons for me liking this rather unassuming 17 hectare stretch of grass in East London are threefold: firstly, location. While the nearby Nightingale and Pembury Estates provide less than salubrious surroundings, the park itself is built on an elevated piece of land overlooking the City, with great views of the Gherkin. It also appears to be the marker for where Heathrow-​bound planes dip their wings and hang a right on their approach — a hypnotic manouvre performed on an unending 30-​second loop and best watched while lying on your back in the grass on a cloudless July day.
The second reason is that Hackney Downs is not London Fields, my other local park, populated by a population of live-​in frisbee-​tossing fixy-​pushing twats. Denizens of the Downs, a much larger space by comparison, have lots more space to play with even on the busiest of days.
Lastly, I live round the corner, a literal stone’s throw from all the Down’s well-​lit facilities: jogging track, footie pitches, monkey bars and tennis & basketball courts. At the drop of a hat I can throw on some trainers, burst out of my front door, and lose myself in my own slice of London’s extensive green space.

park is massive and very open. when i go over there my dog loves running around and i like to sun bathe. nice park

I remember this from years ago as a pretty bleak square of grass. I’m not sure if my perceptions have changed or it’s actually improved, but it’s seemed quite pleasant on my last few visits.
It’s still basically an open square of a park, though it does dip down on the west side, and has some nice houses bordering some areas. All the paths tend to head to the centre, where the action is. Here there are kids play areas, and a ‘no dogs’ etc garden for quiet sitting or little kids to play in. There are gangs of teenagers around, but a mix of people of all ages as well.
You might also see a game of cricket going on. The area is racially mixed, and some communities are more into it than the ethnic English!
My favourite part though is to the North West, where there’s a little wild patch, and avenues of London Plane trees.