London Guide
Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington (or "Stokey") is probably the most immediately appealing area of Hackney, though like much of the borough, it's off the tube map, so you need to catch a bus (#73 or #476 from Angel tube) or train (Stoke Newington train station from Liverpool St) to reach it. Stokey's best attribute is Church Street, a more or less franchise-free former village high street of little independent shops and restaurants.
Stokey was, for several centuries, something of a haven for Nonconformists, who were denied the right to live in the City. The most famous Dissenter to live in the village was Daniel Defoe, who wrote Robinson Crusoe on the corner of what is now Defoe Road and Church Street. Dissenters from a later era, the Angry Brigade, lived at 359 Amhurst Rd, off Stoke Newington High Street, in the early 1970s.