The station opened on 12 May 1980 by British Rail on the re-routed line which bypassed the site of the former Victoria Park station as part of the CrossTown Link line between North Woolwich and Camden Road stations. The station is near the scene of the first railway murder. The victim, Thomas Briggs of 5 Clapton Square, was returning from dining with his niece in Peckham in July 1864 and, aged 69, had the misfortune to meet his murderer on the train. Two clerks discovered a compartment sticky with blood at Hackney, but Franz Muller had slipped away unnoticed to return to his lodgings at 16 Park Terrace. The victim was discovered on the line between Bow and Hackney Wick and was brought initially into the Mitford Castle public house (now the Top o' the Morning) in Cadogan Terrace and subsequently taken home, where he died. A hat belonging to Muller was discovered in the compartment. In the next few days, a Cheapside jeweller came forward with Briggs's missing watch and chain, and a description of Muller. The theft was to pay for Muller's emigration to America, and he departed soon after on the Victoria, but the police went to New York by a faster boat and were awaiting his arrival in New York. He was returned to England, tried, convicted, and hanged at Newgate Prison.
Hackney Wick station was a key transport point for the 2012 Summer Olympics as it is situated 100m from the western periphery of the Olympic Park. In Roman times the River Lea was a wide, fast flowing river, and the tidal estuary stretched as far as Hackney Wick. In 894, a force of Danes sailed up the river to Hertford; Alfred the Great saw an opportunity to defeat the Danes and ordered the lower reaches of the Lea drained, at Leamouth. This left the Danes' boats stranded, but also increased the flow of the river and caused the tidal head to move downriver to Old Ford. In historic times, the marshes were used extensively for grazing cattle, and there was limited occupation around the 'great house' at Hackney Wick. The confectioner Clarnico is synonymous with Hackney Wick. The company, known as Clarke, Nickolls, Coombs until 1946, arrived in Hackney Wick in 1879. Despite being taken over by Trebor Bassett, the name lives on in Bassett's Clarnico Mint Creams. Just after the second world war, Clarnico was the largest confectioner in Britain. The station is in Travelcard Zone 2 and has wi-fi, boarding ramps, and a waiting room but no toilets.
Connections: London Buses route 276 serves the station.
