‘Stokey’, with its bars, cafes and restaurants, independent shops and galleries, was named as one of best places to live in London in 2025 by The Sunday Times.
This paper went to find out if the people who live and work there agreed. Most did – but one or two had misgivings.
Regina Davis, 40, and her daughter Isabella, 14, were shopping at Whole Foods Market.
Mum-of-three Regina, who moved to the area in 2007, said: “It’s become so trendy!”
But she can understand why: “There are so many artistic venues you can’t find anywhere else,” she says. “Art galleries, coffee shops, lots of independent boutiques and a concentration of beautiful streets.”
She said the people are “very friendly”, adding: “If you need help you can just pop over to your neighbour even if you don’t know them.”
Isabella said: “It’s really cozy here and diverse.
“Sometimes when the weather’s sunny it really stands out. There are always celebrations. It has a good community, good neighbours, it’s really nice.”
School worker Charlotte Earl said she “loves” the area: “There are lots of cafes, bars and restaurants around but we don’t have the hustle and bustle of other areas in London. It feels like a community.”
Midge Ryail and her friend Tom Kemp had come down from Newcastle to visit friends.
Midge, a theatre director, said: “I absolutely love it here. There so much choice – what to eat, what to do, so much on the doorstep. It’s cool.”
But she still said Newcastle was better, adding: “I can’t go on record and slag it off.”
Tom said they’d spent the previous day in Clissold Park. He said: “It’s very relaxing. When I lived in London near the City, you can feel trapped, but here it’s got its own identity, it’s really nice.”
Dad-of-two Barney Mitchell, who works as a builder, was not so keen. He said: “If you are rich it’s a good place to live and if you are not rich, it’s a s*** place to live because of the house prices, lack of housing stock, an unregulated housing market.
“It’s like a little bubble, like many other places in London.”
He conceded that the area had many independent shops that “people value but find more and more expensive”, that there are “a couple of nice parks” – and it us not far from Hackney Marshes, near where he lives.
But he praised the Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground “where children go to play, take risks and be autonomous”.
He added: “Stoke Newington has a great heritage and music culture. One of the best pubs is The Shakespeare, It’s got a free juke box with really good music on it.”
Camia cafe owner Leyla Aslan said: “Stoke Newington’s a nice place to live but it’s a bit overrated.
“It’s nice but it’s rapidly changing. The last 16 years I’ve stayed here people are changing, people are moving and since Covid it’s become really visible.”
Estate agent Michael Naik, who is preparing to celebrate his 40th anniversary in Church Street in May, has seen how the area has changed.
He said: “In 1985 I was selling three-bedroom properties at the back of my office for £43,000. Now they are £1.3 million for the same house.
“People are selling their properties and moving to Edmonton, where they are buying a house for £500k with £700k left to spend.”
Carrie and Laura were walking their dog in Abney Park garden cemetery, a woodland memorial park and nature reserve.
Carrie said: “One of the things that’s great is precisely this cemetery.
“Haringey Council had a proposal to ban dogs off leads but was unsuccessful.
“If it comes round again, then I will leave Stoke Newington.”
Stoke Newington certainly ticks Laura’s boxes. She said: “Food, green and queer. If you add cinema and bookshop we’re done.”
Dad-of-three Tim, who was walking his brown Labrador dog Lucy, agreed about the dog walking.
He said: “It would be grim if she had to be on a lead. The freedom she has to run around twice a day otherwise she’d risk getting overweight and mental health issues.”
Tim said he’d previously lived in Camden and Islington where litter was a big problem, adding: “This is more friendly, people tend to live here and have a stake in the place. ”
He said Stoke Newington is safe, has good restaurants and schools, there are two bakeries, “one independent, one Gails”, a tailor to fix zips, a locksmith, fantastic corner shops and a fire station and police station “on the doorstep”.
He added: “You have everything you need within a few minutes walk. It’s an urban village.
“The way people rub along with each other is one of the strengths of the area.
“Schools are mixed, inclusive and very successful.”
