23 Broadway Market Businesses Warn Over Hackney Half 2026 Route Shift
Broadway Market traders say the hackney half 2026 route change will cut footfall on 17 May 2026. Twenty-three businesses have asked Hackney Council to review how the race is managed after the route was moved away from their street to make room for the Sunday market.
Alex Bloom on Broadway Market
Alex Bloom said the difference is stark at Aya & Suki. "On a Hackney Half day, we’d take about £3,000, but with the food market running last year it was more like £500."
She added: "This is the one day we make money." That is the core complaint from Broadway Market traders: the race once pulled spectators through the strip, but the Sunday market now sits on top of one of the biggest trading days of the year.
William Cheshire and the route
The Hackney Half has been held in Hackney since 2014, and more than 25,000 participants are set to run on Sunday 17 May 2026 through Dalston, Homerton and London Fields. Until 2025, runners crossed over the Regent’s Canal and up through Broadway Market, a stretch that traders say helped both visibility and sales.
William Cheshire, who runs a bespoke jewellery business and on-site workshop on Broadway Market, said: "This is a real crunch point. The atmosphere is fantastic because you get supporters cheering and echoing around the buildings. It’s a big part of the community."
Businesses Want Broadway Market Back
The letter to the council includes The Dove pub, El Ganso, Fin & Flounder and Shrine to the Vine, along with other Broadway Market signatories. Stephane Cusset said: "We just made so much more on the Hackney Half when there was no Sunday market. It was a really good day for businesses because it was so busy on the street."
The traders are asking for a review and want the original route seriously considered again. For businesses along Broadway Market, the issue is not abstract: they say the race day crowd has been replaced by a competing use of the same street on a Sunday, and the numbers they cite suggest the gap is wide enough to reshape one of their biggest annual trading days.
