Hackney Council has launched an online map to help people on a night out find toilets, drinking water, phone charging and routes home.
The Hackney Nights map shows the council’s accredited venues, from grassroots music venues to late-night bars, and the facilities and support each one offers. It also shows opening times and which places are wheelchair accessible. Using a phone’s location, it lists nearby live bus routes and cycle paths for the journey home.
QR codes linking to the map are going up on posters in venue windows, the council says. Mixmag reports that, according to the council’s Instagram, they will also appear in takeaways and at bus stops, and keyrings carrying the code can be picked up on Rivington Street in Shoreditch on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October, the Halloween weekend.
“Hackney has the best nightlife in London, and it’s where so many people find their community,” said Cllr Sam Mathys, the council’s cabinet member for culture, leisure, nightlife and business regulation. “This map will support all those who enjoy our nightlife and our upcoming policy work will ensure these spaces can thrive.”
Part of Hackney Nights
The map was built by Igloo. Every venue on it is accredited under Hackney Nights, the council’s scheme for licensed premises, which offers staff training, grants and guidance. The council says it has trained 4,400 nightlife staff in safeguarding since the scheme began in 2019. The Hackney Nights website says its services are paid for by the late night levy, a charge on businesses with late licences.
Over the next year the council plans to change how licensing, planning and noise rules work and to publish a new cultural strategy that will include nightlife. Two licensing disputes in the borough this autumn, over BBE Store in London Fields and Howl At The Moon in Hoxton, involved complaints from neighbours.
The essentials
- What: Hackney Nights map of accredited venues, toilets, drinking water, phone charging, step-free access and routes home
- Where: online at hackneynights.co.uk/map, and by QR code in venue windows
- Keyrings: Rivington Street, Shoreditch, Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October 2026
- Run by: Hackney Council, funded by the late night levy