From Hackney, With Love An Intimate History of Gentrification
For so many decades, Hackney was the pinnacle of the dynamic multicultural spirit of modern Britain, demonstrated by the borough’s vibrant and energetic streets and often controversial political, cultural and socio-economic character. But today, the Hackney that long-standing residents once treasured seems to be disappearing. The borough’s diverse working-class communities – who survived the run-down council estates, the overwhelming deprivation and the postcode wars – are increasingly being pushed out by the middle classes who buy up their homes, rename their shops and reshape their neighbourhoods.
How did Hackney go from being one of the poorest and most uninviting places in the country to being one of the most sought-after locations? In these pages, lifelong resident Richard Yeboah uncovers the borough’s lively history, revealing the uncomfortable story of how gentrification has transformed Hackney, for better or for worse.
Examining some of the most contested issues facing the borough today – including housing and regeneration, politics, class, race, education, youth violence, culture and gender identity – Yeboah amplifies the voices of Hackney’s new, existing and former communities and explores the relationship between gentrification and feelings of belonging and loss.
From Hackney, With Love is both a unique love letter to one of the most vibrant parts of London and a warning that its very existence is in jeopardy.
Reviews
“From Hackney, With Love artfully blends autobiography with analysis, providing both a deeply personal and a passionately political history of Hackney’s gentrification. There are few more contentious issues facing modern cities than gentrification, and there aren’t many – if any – places in which the gentrifying process is more divisive than it is in Hackney. Neither a lecture nor a rant, From Hackney, With Love guides the reader through the contours of this controversy with gentle tenacity, careful balance and a lot of heart. However familiar or unfamiliar readers are with Hackney and with gentrification, they will learn a lot from this excellent book.”
Luke Billingham, author and youth worker at Hackney Quest
“Hackney has long been a laboratory for testing conflicting theories of inner-city success and failure, owing to its long history of industrialisation (and subsequent decline), mixed housing stock, intricate patterns of migration and tradition of radical municipal politics. Richard Yeboah is ideally placed to tell this story afresh, having been born in the borough, where he still lives, and does so convincingly. From Hackney, With Love combines personal testimony with an impressive reading of the wide-ranging academic research that underpins Yeboah’s persuasive chronicle of the contested theory of contemporary inner-city gentrification.”
Ken Worpole, writer and social historian
“Richard Yeboah is in the right place at the right time to witness and record with such impeccable attention to detail and tenderness the recent trajectory of Hackney. This book is a compelling mosaic of autobiography, class inquiry and civic history of one of London’s most progressive and influential boroughs – charting its development from post-war rebuilding to industrial decline to regeneration and ascendancy to current hipness and middle-class desirability. Even though the borough is ‘safer’ and ‘nicer’ today, have these benefits come at the cost of eroding the sense community and in the process Yeboah’s memories? From Hackney, With Love covers the anguish of recognising love of place in the face of relentless evolution and expansion and the eradication of established working-class structures that kept people in Hackney unified and safe. Yeboah’s work is a monumental achievement and much-needed study at this moment in time, as we question the future value of tradition, customs and culture. I wish I had had this book as a resource and reference when I started out photographing Hackney in the mid-1980s, and it has put so many of my subconscious thoughts into such a beautiful shape. Wonderful.”
Chris Dorley-Brown, documentary photographer and filmmaker
“From Hackney, With Love is a wonderful book about gentrification written by a long-time, working-class, black Londoner – not another academic or gentrifier (and they are often both)! It’s a superb account of the policies and practices that have turned a once affordable, multicultural, gritty London borough into a soulless playground for wealthier groups. It’s also a painful comment on both the slow violence of sociocultural displacement and Richard Yeboah’s own recognition of his likely physical displacement. His book is a provocative outing of what he calls ‘structural adjustment’ and of educational disinvestment and subsequent ‘academisation’, both of which forefront the role of the local and national state in Hackney’s gentrification.”
Loretta Lees, scholar-activist on gentrification and former chair of the London Housing Panel
“Anyone interested in understanding what gentrification means to multi-ethnic working-class communities in London should read Richard Yeboah’s remarkable book, From Hackney, With Love: An Intimate History of Gentrification.”
Paul Watt, visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of Estate Regeneration and Its Discontents: Public Housing, Place and Inequality in London
“A compelling combination of autobiographical poignancy mixed with illuminating well-researched facts; this book is a total triumph. This enthralling deep dive is a must-read for anyone – whether from Hackney or not – interested in the ever-changing social fabric of inner-city life and its impact on the inhabitants living within the areas most affected by the ever-tightening grip of gentrification. I will return to this brilliant book again and again and again.”
Ashley Hickson-Lovence, author of The 392, Wild East and Your Show
“From Hackney, With Love succeeds admirably in its mission to deliver an intimate portrait of a community struggling with immense change against the backdrop of a compelling political economic history that helps us understand the drivers of gentrification as well as its deeply personal effects.”
Leslie Kern, author of Feminist City and Gentrification Is Inevitable and Other Lies
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- Hardback, 256 pages
- ISBN: 9781785909290
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29 May 2025
Available to pre-order - £20.00
- eBook
- ISBN: 9781837360109
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29 May 2025
Available to pre-order - £14.99