Hackney coffee: market stalls, railway arches, light roasts

In 2002 Ian Burgess began selling coffee from a stall on Broadway Market, and the business became Climpson & Sons, a roaster whose café is still on the market. Dark Arts roasts in Homerton, and e5 Bakehouse, the sourdough bakery in the railway arches by London Fields, roasts its own coffee at its sister bakery in Poplar. Around them are bakeries and neighbourhood cafés pouring other roasters’ coffee: Pophams pours a house blend made with Assembly Coffee, Esters pours Ozone, and Lodestar rotates guest roasteries. Origin’s London flagship sits at the borough’s southern edge in Shoreditch.

These seven coffee shops in Hackney run from Broadway Market and London Fields out to Clapton, Stoke Newington and Shoreditch. For the rest of the city, see the London coffee guide.

Climpson & Sons, Broadway Market

Ian Burgess started Climpson & Sons as Burgil Coffee after moving back to the UK from Australia, and ran it as a stall on Broadway Market for its first years. When the business moved into the old butcher’s shop on the market, it took the butcher’s name, and the café is still there, with the original stall surviving as a Saturday cart. Climpson now roasts in Leyton, and its headquarters and training academy are in Hackney.

The café sells coffee and brewing equipment. Its head barista runs home barista and brewing workshops at weekends, and a monthly cupping club has met since 2014. The range is organised by role: The Baron and The Estate as house espressos, Broadway Blend as the seasonal blend, The Fields for something more adventurous, The Decaf, and single-origin filter coffees. Climpson became a certified B Corp in 2023 and supplies more than 300 hospitality businesses across the UK and Ireland.

Pophams, London Fields and Victoria Park

Pophams was founded in 2017 by Ollie and Lucy. Two of its three bakeries are in Hackney, by London Fields and in Victoria Park Village, and the third is in Islington. The coffee is a house blend developed and roasted in partnership with Assembly Coffee, and the team has its own head of coffee.

The pastries run from croissants and a cardamom bun to a honey and smoked sea salt pastry and a Marmite, Schlossberger and spring onion one, with a seasonal fruit special. A sweet selection follows from late morning and the lunch menu changes regularly. Pastries often sell out on weekend afternoons. The biscuits are baked in London Fields, and the ceramics, linens and glassware used in the bakeries are sold through Pophams Home.

e5 Bakehouse, London Fields

In the spring of 2010 Ben, back in Hackney after a sourdough course at the School of Artisan Food, built a clay oven in the corner of a railway arch and fuelled it with off-cuts from local carpenters. e5 Bakehouse moved into its own arch in 2011 and has since spread into the arches on either side, with a pastry department, a stone flour mill, a chocolate facility and a deli shop. It is certified organic, grows heritage wheats at its own farm in Suffolk and delivers bread locally by bicycle only.

Coffee came after bread and lunches. In 2017 e5 began roasting at e5 Roasthouse in Poplar, now Poplar Bakehouse, on a 6kg Giesen, buying from community-owned exporters at origin; half of the coffee is certified organic. One Colombian lot, Las Brisas from Tolima, crossed to the UK under sail and was lifted off a narrow boat on the Limehouse Cut straight into the roastery.

Dark Arts Coffee, Homerton and Shoreditch

Dark Arts Coffee was established in 2014, and since 2020 its headquarters in Homerton has held all the roasting, quality control and production, along with a takeout espresso bar. In 2022 it opened a second site, a moody coffee stand inside The Great Frog jewellery shop in Shoreditch, which serves espresso and filter among the jewellery and a custom Playboy x TGF Harley chopper.

The roasting is light and modern. Dragon, the seasonal espresso, and Lost Highway get slightly more development for espresso and are still light by espresso standards. Dark Arts buys as much of a coffee as it can, sells it while it is fresh and often returns to the same farm the next season. Its limited releases include All Coffees Are Beautiful, a Peruvian natural made with IDLES, with part of the proceeds going to a non-profit. Wholesale customers in London get their coffee in reusable tubs, delivered by electric van.

Lodestar Coffee, Lower Clapton

Lodestar is run by Bugra and Gizem, who marked five years of the shop in July 2026. Its line is “Brewing what we love, rotating world’s finest roasteries”, and the guest espresso changes often: recent ones include Flower Chaos from People Possession, co-fermented with flowers, and a hibiscus-led espresso from Taith. Beans from its favourite roasteries, Coborn among them, line the shelves for home brewing. Cold brew is brewed for fifteen to sixteen hours, freddo espresso arrives in summer and the pastries come from St. John. Some evenings Lodestar opens as a Night Café, serving cold brews in wine glasses, with laptops closed and no alcohol.

Esters, Stoke Newington

Esters is a neighbourhood café in Stoke Newington built around coffee, brunch and cake, with a garden. The coffee is from Ozone, the tea from Postcard Teas and the milk from Northiam Dairy. The kitchen cooks a short, creative menu from scratch with produce from small farmers in Cambridgeshire, Sussex and Kent, and turns out most of its baked goods with UK-grown grains; Saturdays run an extended brunch menu all day. There are no reservations and no exceptions, payment is by card only, well-behaved dogs are welcome and laptops stay closed on Fridays and Saturdays.

Origin Coffee, Shoreditch

Tom Sobey founded Origin in Cornwall in 2004, and it still roasts at its roastery in Porthleven. Its principles are to roast lightly and to source, support and champion farmers, and for most coffees it discloses the price paid, the margin over the Fairtrade minimum and a cup score. The Shoreditch café is the London flagship, built around a brew bar and an illustrated mural, and it carries the full range of monthly feature coffees. Origin is a certified B Corp, and its accolades include UK Barista Championship wins in 2016 and 2018.

What you need to know about Hackney specialty coffee

Which Hackney coffee shops roast their own coffee? Dark Arts roasts at its Homerton headquarters, where it also runs a takeout espresso bar. e5 Bakehouse roasts at its Poplar Bakehouse and serves the coffee in its London Fields arch. Climpson & Sons roasts in Leyton and keeps its café on Broadway Market, and Origin roasts in Cornwall for its Shoreditch flagship.

Which roasters do the other cafés serve? Pophams pours a house blend roasted with Assembly Coffee, Esters serves Ozone, and Lodestar rotates guest roasters such as People Possession, Taith and Coborn.

Where can you learn about coffee in Hackney? Climpson & Sons runs weekend home barista and brewing workshops at the Broadway Market café and a monthly cupping club, and its academy in Hackney teaches a home espresso course.

Can you book a table? Esters takes no reservations, and Lodestar’s Night Café seating is first come, first served.

What are the laptop rules? Esters asks for laptops to stay closed on Fridays and Saturdays, and they stay closed at Lodestar’s Night Café too.