Stoke Newington

rch Street retains the distinct London village character which led Nikolaus Pevsner to write in 1953 that he found it hard to see the district as being in London at all. Stoke Newington is nicknamed "Stokey" by many residents. The modern London Borough of Hackney was formed by the merger of three former Metropolitan Boroughs, Hackney and the considerably smaller authorities of Stoke Newington and Shoreditch. These Metropolitan Boroughs had been in existence since 1899 but their names and boundaries were very closely based on parishes dating back to the Middle Ages. Unlike many districts in London, such as nearby Stamford Hill and Dalston, Stoke Newington has longstanding formal boundaries; but, like many areas, the informal understanding has changed over time. What is now considered Stoke Newington stretches further east, overlapping areas of the former ancient parish and then Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.