Editing London Borough of Hackney (section)

===Topography and Landscape history===
The London Borough of Hackney covers an area of {{convert|19.06|sqkm|sqmi|abbr=on}}, rising westward from the Lea to reach {{convert|30|m|ft|abbr=on}} above sea level at Clapton Common and [[Stamford Hill]]. The area around [[Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets|Victoria Park]], in the south of the borough lies about {{convert|15|m|ft|abbr=off}} above sea level.

After the [[Norman Conquest]] the area became part of the [[Forest of Middlesex]], which covered much of the [[Middlesex|county]], but this gives rise to misunderstanding, as in this context "Forest" is a legal term referring to royal hunting rights and had a weak correlation with woodland cover, especially in the early post-Conquest Period.<ref name="ReferenceA">The History of the Countryside, Oliver Rackham, 1986</ref>

By the time of the earliest reliable maps, in the 18th century, the area covered by the modern borough was an agricultural area characterised by enclosed farmland with small hamlets and very little woodland. There were a number of commons, most of which survived to become the basis of modern parks. Many of the major roads were present by this time, the road now known as the [[Ermine Street|A10]] was Roman, and others, like many in England, may be older.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

With the obvious exception of the urbanisation of the area, the greatest changes have been to the waterways and wetlands of the area. The [[River Lea]], the area's primary geographic feature, has lost its grazing marshes and seen the [[River Lee Navigation]] created in 1770. This is an artificial channel of the river, passing through [[Hackney Cut]] and across the [[Hackney Marshes]] to straighten a meander of the natural river. In Roman times and for a long time after, the [[River Lea]] was an estuary, tidal as far as [[Hackney Wick]].

At Hackney Wick the [[Hackney Brook]] met the [[River Lea|Lea]]; the [[confluence]] was very wide when flooded. [[Hackney Brook]] was fully culverted in 1860 by the [[Metropolitan Board of Works]].<ref name="intro">{{cite book|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22692 |title=Hackney: Introduction, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney|date=1995|pages= 1–4|access-date= 13 June 2009}}</ref>

The [[New River (London)|New River]] was opened in 1613, diverting water from the Lea catchment to create a source of drinking water for London. The New River still passes through the borough, close to [[Finsbury Park]] and flows towards [[Islington]]. Another man-made feature, the [[Regents Canal]] also crosses the borough to the south of [[De Beauvoir Town]] in the west, joining the [[Hertford Union Canal]] below Victoria Park.<ref name="intro" />