Hackney Wick: When does the party end?
East London's best nightlife spots are struggling to keep the doors open while the city's authorities grapple for ways to support them.
May 2, 2026.
Revellers from all over London descended on Hackney Wick, to celebrate the ninth annual Queen's Yard Summer Party. The super-venue combines 16 bars and clubs to turn an old industrial estate into a huge day and night festival.
This year was its biggest turnout yet.
Thousands of people, top DJs, and beautiful weather: a community coming together to celebrate an East London area defined by art and creativity.
The party looks ahead to its decade anniversary next year. But how does community thrive when it is squeezed by empty pockets and a city which is waking up too slowly to its nightlife being killed off?
Queen’s Yard and Hackney Wick were not always this bustling hub of independent breweries and funky bars. It was once an industrial hub in the age of empire.
The world's first man-made plastic, Parkesine, was developed here and the Wick's industrial history is clear to see. Riveted steel bridges, smoke-stained towers, and a few warehouses remain.
As industry left London, Hackney Wick fell into disrepair. In a bid to lure back workers the dominating 21-storey Trowbridge Towers were built in the 1960s.
Their existence was short lived and the seven towers we demolished in 1995:
[BBC News, 28/05/2024]
What remained was a hodgepodge of disused industrial spaces and quaint cottage industries.
London’s authorities were aware of Hackney Wick's dilapidated state. The Lower Lea Valley was identified as an ‘Opportunity Area’, that being a prime area for redevelopment, in the London Plan 2004:
“This area, stretching from Hackney Wick in the north to Canning Town and beyond to the Thames in the south, is an industrial area based around a network of canals and watercourses. Many of the industrial premises are in low-grade uses and only partially occupied, which give parts of the area a poor appearance. The railway forms a barrier to development opportunities towards the west.”
The development of Hackney Wick began in earnest. New infrastructure was planned alongside the delivery of the 2012 Olympics, including the introduction of the London Overground in 2007.
Hackney Wick Station needed updating.
The new station was unveiled in 2017.
Gone are the garages and workshops, opening new opportunities for breweries.
Multiple housing developments, still under construction, have changed the area once again.
Hackney Wick's face continues to evolve.
The issues Hackney Wick's venues are facing
Kenan Balli has run Fabwick since it opened in 2024. The multi-purpose bar is built in an old clothes warehouse on the edge of Queen's Yard and has become a key part of the Queen's Yard Summer Party.
"We had so many guests, I believe it is the biggest guest numbers we have had in all time because people like this cozy area. They're feeling really comfortable. And this year we opened an additional dance floor area as well. People really liked it."
"We never had any issues with the people because Hackney and Queen's Yard is designed for the music, artists and creativity."
Fabwick owner Kenan Balli
Fabwick owner Kenan Balli
Despite his quick integration with the neighbouring bars, Kenan has encountered plenty of issues in Fabwick's journey, especially to do with the time and cost of licensing.
"We've spent around £80,000. Then get the one piece of paper."
"[The council] asked for a flooding report. They've asked for a sound report. They've asked another sound report. They've been asked so many reports. And finally, I said, 'Do you need anything else?'"
"One sound report cost £7,500."
"This business is quite hard at the moment because of taxation. In the hospitality business so many places closing down because of staff issues, experienced staff issues but we are based off the family run business," he said.
"All the property value has come up, our business rate just came up like 350% and I just made the complaint to them."
"[The council] has got rules to follow. If it’s right or wrong, I can't make any comment on. If I want a business, I have to follow this. But it's quite hard."
Chris is the general manager of the Lord Napier, a 180-year-old pub that was derelict throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. He has been running the pub since it reopened in 2021.
"We still describe ourselves as a modern British pub, which means that we still try to be pubs, but we also try and survive financially," he said.
"We have DJs, we do lots of events. You can't just sit around as a pub and expect people just to come in on Friday, Saturday nights anymore. You have to be busy all through the week, you have to serve food, you have to have events on."
"Especially recently, people don't just pop in for a pint anymore because no one has the money for that kind of discretionary spending, but they will come out for events."
Chris outside the front door of the Lord Napier
Chris outside the front door of the Lord Napier
"It's a love-hate relationship with councils. It has definitely started to turn but there has been an over support of local residents. Councils lean heavily on the residents, but it's starting to change."
"They have a rule now called ‘agent of change’ where if complainants can't prove that the pub has changed something then they can't complain about something the pub is doing. People can't be like, "Well, I live here. You have to change."
"Even in Soho where they've had 300 years of nightlife. People always move to these areas because of the nightlife, because of the social conditions and then as soon as they move in, they complain."
"I've been working in London for 30 years and it has always been an issue."
Credit: Hamish Stewart, 2015.
Credit: Hamish Stewart, 2015.
The issues faced by Chris and Kenan are common across the industry and less than a third feel optimistic for the sector over the next 12 months.
This is according to the latest Night Time Economy Market Monitor report from the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), the main industry body that advocates for nightlife businesses.
The group's May 2026 report shows Britain's late night economy has shrunk by 28.9% since the covid-19 pandemic. Since March last year there has been a 5% decline alone.
Data Source: NTIA
The wider industry of bars and venues is seeing numbers decline too.
Data Source: NTIA
"It is erosion happening faster than evolution. And that creates a real risk that we lose vital parts of our cultural and social fabric before new models have the chance to fully emerge."
How Hackney and London are trying supporting the industry
The nightlife and hospitality industry in UK is struggling and Hackney Wick is not spared.
To support nightlife, Hackney Council set up Hackney Nights in 2019 to liasion with the 1,600 licensed premises in the borough.
Sam Mathys created the organisation and became the borough's Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure, Resilience and Business standards in May 2026.
Hackney Councillor Sam Mathys
Hackney Councillor Sam Mathys
"[Hackney Nights] was supposed to be a supportive project for businesses where they could have free advice, free training, but also we would provide one-on-one engagement and be their go-to person in the council who could connect them to other services."
"We ended up doing a lot of mediation, a lot of free advice, especially around licensing and noise complaints," she said
Councillor Mathys was headhunted to be a policy advisor for the Greater London Assembly and helped put together the independent Nightlife Taskforce's plan, published in January 2026.
This plan outlined 23 recommendations to support nightlife in the city with the first actioned upon being licensing reform. There will be city-wide license strategy between the local and national level, similar to how planning works in London at present.
"We need to say is that there was no evidence base - no one really did any research on London's nightlife previously."
"What we're trying to do is make licensing more predictable, knowing what you need to have in place, knowing that if you go for it and you have this in place that you have really good chances of getting your license," Cllr Mathys said.
"We need the predictability, it's an access problem. I've seen seen multiple [licensing] cases go over £200,000."
Cllr Mathys explained how she did not believe there was a fundamental contradiction between residents and venues.
"There's this misconception that most people are against [nightlife] but if you look at the Hackney Night Time Strategy Consultation there's an overwhelming support for vibrant neighborhoods," she said.
"We have to get away from this idea that everyone's against it. Maybe two-to-five percent of people are bothered by it. But like most people who come to Hackney, they want to live in vibrant, buzzing neighborhoods."
It will be years before the taskforce's report is implemented, but the direction of travel is a London that wants to work with nightlife, not against it.
Chris, Kenan, and revellers at the Queen's Yard Summer Party, will certainly hope so.
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