App-etising: a Taste of Hackney heritage for your phone

A Taste of Hackney explores the history of Ridley Road Market

A new app celebrating the heritage of Ridley Road market, Hackney’s only remaining daily food market, was launched this month by local arts organisation A Different Drum Productions.

Pupils at Colvestone Primary School and pensioners from Agewell Computer Club produced the Taste of Hackney app to encourage residents and visitors to connect with the area through the exchange of recipes while walking through the market.

Victoria Coker, co-founder of A Different Drum, said: “The relationship between food and immigration is central to the project. We want to provide a people-centered chronicle on how changing populations have influenced the produce available at the market.”

Indeed, there’s no denying that Ridley Road market has roots in the long history of immigration to the area. Through audio tracks, poetry, videos of recipes, games and images, the app documents the evolution of Ridley Road’s food trade from a market which once served the local Jewish community to today’s stalls, selling a variety of Turkish, African and West Indian produce.

Engaging and interactive, the app’s focus is on food in the community, demonstrating how changing demographics have altered the way people eat and interact and how food is undeniably linked with the integration of new and potentially marginalised communities.

Essentially a local initiative, encouraging a variety of people from the area to get involved, the production of Taste of Hackney has seen people of all ages and cultures come together to share recipes, tell stories and cook the food that has shaped the culinary heritage of the borough.

The app is free to download and available on both iPhone and Android.