Editing London Borough of Hackney (section)

===Iron Age to Anglo-Saxon period===
In the Iron Age and probably until after the Roman period (as the Romans used tribal territories as administrative sub-divisions), the [[River Lea]] was considered to separate the territories of the [[Catuvellauni]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brickfields.org.uk/text/roman-landscape.html|title=Hackney: Roman Landscape|publisher=Building Exploratory:Brickfields|access-date=10 May 2007|archive-date=4 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104113659/http://brickfields.org.uk/text/roman-landscape.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> to the west of the river from the [[Trinovantes]] to the east.

The Romans built the [[Roman road]], [[Ermine Street]], which runs through the modern borough under the names [[Shoreditch High Street]] and [[Kingsland Road]], among others.

In the Anglo-Saxon period, the [[River Lea]] separated the core territories of the [[East Saxons]] (on the east side) from the [[Middle Saxons]] (on the western, Hackney side) they often controlled. This continuity of this natural boundary from pre-Roman period may be a result of the differing Saxon groups taking control of pre-defined territories.

After both areas were brought under the control of [[Alfred the Great]], the river became the boundary between the historic counties of Middlesex (Hackney) and Essex (modern [[Newham]], [[Waltham Forest]] and [[London Borough of Redbridge|Redbridge]]).