Driving lessons in Hackney
The most popular areas include:__
Dalston, Hackney Wick, Homerton, Lower Clapton, Shoreditch, South Hackney, Stanford, Stoke Newington, Upper Clapton and West Hackey.
Enter your postcode above to find prices in your local area of Hackney.
View other guides: Driving Lessons in London, Driving Lessons in Birmingham, Driving Lessons in Manchester.
Learn to drive in Hackney
Hackney is a bustling borough with all sorts of roads, great for preparing you for life as a motorist.
To start with, your instructor will keep you to the quieter roads of Hackey. This way you can get to grips with the basics without the pressure of other cars around you. After this, you’ll try busier streets like Ambler Road or Laurel Street (the B108) where you’ll have to be ready to deal with pedestrian crossings, junctions, and speed bumps! Ambler Road also makes a great spot to return to when you’re practising your parallel park (always a handy skill to know around London).
If you’re looking to practise roundabouts, there’s a neat series of three west of Hackney. You can cover them by following Grosvenor Avenue onto Petherton Road, and then taking the exit onto Beresford Terrace. If it’s a place for manoeuvres you need, we’d recommend Malvern Road. It’s wide and relatively quiet, so it’s great for parallel parks and three-point turns (although three-point turns are no longer part of the test they’re still a valuable skill).
The A10, running north to south through Hackney, is a great road to try out in the lead up to your practical test. It’ll put your skills to the test with bus lanes, speed cameras and controlled junctions. There’s an especially large box junction where the A10 meets the A107. Make sure you don’t rush your approach to it, and that you pay attention to the road markings and road signs. If you can handle that with ease, you’ll be well on your way to earning that shiny pink licence!
Taking your test in Hackney
The Wood Green Test Centre is the main test centre in Hackney, right next to Wood Green Crown Court. Test routes aren’t published anymore, but your instructor will help you learn the roads around your test centre in preparation for the big day.
The Wood Green Test Centre is in a built-up residential area like the majority of London test centres. If your test is during rush hour, or the school run, it’s likely your examiner will keep you to the quieter back roads to keep you from getting stuck in traffic. There you’ll face plenty of parked cars, so the parallel park could have a good chance of coming up.
The A105 is probably the most complex road that you might face. You’ll have to keep an eye out for 20 mph zones, box junctions, and buses to name but a few of the challenges. Your instructor will make sure you’ve experienced it before your test though so don’t worry too much. Just remember to stay relaxed during the test, and not to panic if you think you’ve made a mistake. We’re sure you’ll do great!
Driving test centres
It’s important to choose the test centre that’s right for you. That’s why, when the time is right, your instructor will help you pick. They’ll also get you learning all the right routes around your chosen test centre in the lead up to your test. There are two test centres close to Hackney:
- Wood Green Crown Court: Woodhall House, Lordship Lane, Wood Green, Greater London, N22 5LF
- Tottenham: Driving Test Centre Tottenham Annex Building, Selby Centre, Selby Road, Tottenham, Greater London, N17 8JL.
Manual vs Automatic
__Whether it’s manual or automatic driving lessons is up to you..
A manual licence allows you to drive both manual and automatic cars, whereas an automatic licence restricts you to automatics. Manual lessons also tend to be cheaper. However, there’s less to learn in an automatic, so you could end up passing quicker and therefore spending less.
You should think about when and where you’ll be driving in Hackney. If you’re going to be travelling during rush hour then you might prefer an automatic, so you don’t have to change gear all the time in slow-moving traffic. If you’ll be taking longer journies, you might prefer a manual, for the added sense of control. In the end, the choice is yours!