It was not always like this: though there has long been poverty here, it was once a thriving borough with big department stores and fine Georgian and Regency Squares now left isolated in the midst of dilapidated council estates.

Throughout its history, those with money who have soaked up its rich diverse culture have eventually moved out. In the Eighties, for example, a young married couple with promising careers as barristers lived in the Mapledene area of Hackney. In time they, too, decided to move to up-and-coming Islington and never looked back. They were Tony and Cherie Blair.