Located in east London just north of The City, Hackney has a long history stretching back to Tudor times. During the 1980s when Berris Conolly took these photographs it was an area in decline. This was a decade of turmoil in both national and local politics with issues of social justice never far from the headlines. Today the concerns increasingly revolve around the gentrification of areas of the borough and the disparities of wealth that this exemplifies.