Acquired: 1535
Photo: C.A. Stanford
Hackney was mostly built in the late fifteenth century by the Dean of St. Paul’s. It must have been an impressive house as in 1531 the Earl of Northumberland purchased it from its current owner, but just four years later Henry VIII forced an exchange of lands with that peer to acquire both of these estates. The king did visit but did not undertake major building work at Hackney. For several years he leased the house to Thomas Cromwell, under whose supervision significant remodeling was done. Henry’s son also granted the house to a courtier and by the seventeenth century a new house graced the property. There is no visible trace of the Tudor Hackney today. Excavation work has revealed that Hackney was a brick-built house, likely with two courtyards.