Hackney Brook – Part 2: walking tour with Paul Talling, Author of London's Lost Rivers

- Although this walk follows Part 1 of the Hackney Brook series (from Holloway), there's no need to have joined the earlier tour to enjoy it. This self-contained walk explores the final stretch of the area around the long-lost Hackney Brook from the River Lea at Hackney Wick back towards Hackney Central.

We finish at The Crown for optional drinks and entertainment.Hackney Wick was once one of Britain's greatest centres of industry and innovation.

Along the way you'll discover the stories behind some of its remarkable factories and pioneering businesses, including the Hope Chemical Works – one of the birthplaces of Britain's modern petroleum industry – and Clarnico, once the largest general confectionery manufacturer in Britain.We'll also visit the site of Achille Serre's pioneering dry-cleaning works, the first in the UK, which even employed its own female fire brigade, and the Parkesine Works, where the world's first man-made plastic was produced.

Other fascinating stops include the Broadwood & Sons piano factory, whose instruments were played by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt; the Algha Works, whose spectacles were worn by Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Ozzy Osbourne, Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Rihanna, Queen Elizabeth II and even Harry Potter on screen; Percy Dalton's famous peanut factory; and Bronco, the British Patent Perforated Paper Company, Britain's first manufacturer of toilet paper.As always, there are plenty of unusual stories along the way, including several long-lost pubs (and one that has remarkably returned from the dead), a youth club where Cliff Richard performed, Lesney's Matchbox toy factory, the lost Hackney Wick Stadium, the famous Big Breakfast House, and the Pudding Mill River – a lost watercourse that disappeared beneath the redevelopment for the 2012 Olympic Games.Pre-walk breakfast tip: The Wick Cafe, 28 Felstead St, Hackney Wick.