The welcome is warm and the food reliably wonderful Modern Hackney Wick has a working overground station, several reformer pilates studios and, since the middle of last year, a new-build courtyard where Inis , an Irish-influenced bistro, serves thick chunks of Guinness cake and bowls of potato scallops with dainty silver jugs of curry sauce. Eat at Inis, then walk back via the artisan fromagerie and the padel court. The Wick was not always thus, especially for diners. Those who knew the place in the noughties, before its decimation and reconstruction for the 2012 London Olympics , may well lament those bygone days. At one point circa 2005, Forman’s fish restaurant , which boasted a “view of the canal”, was one of the – cough – sole options round these parts. Back then, the canal, where these days young things frolic, was a swamp of shopping trolleys and sad-looking swans, and your salmon en croute might be accompanied by the spectacle of dehydrated ravers trying to find home two days after Friday’s squat party. Gentrification has come at a price, though, with stratospheric rents, in particular, but there are now also street art tours, sourdough pizzas and a great many places where you can buy terrible pre-mixed cocktails. Continue reading...