Yes, and flooding is Homerton's most serious problem. Nearly one postcode in five is in the highest river flood zone. Close to four in ten carry a high rating on at least one flood measure. Most of the homes at risk are rated high, with very few in between. The marshes to the east were used for grazing because they flooded, and the modern mapping agrees with the people who made that choice.
On the Environment Agency's river-and-sea mapping, about 18% of Homerton's postcodes are in Flood Zone 3, the highest-probability band, and about 1% are in Zone 2. Zone 2 is the medium-probability fringe outside Zone 3, so a small Zone 2 figure means the risk boundary is sharp. Postcodes tend to be either in the high-risk band or out of the zones altogether. Those zones cover rivers and the sea only.
Surface water is a separate problem. Homerton grew up along Hackney Brook, which now runs underground, and rain that can't drain away follows the lie of the land whatever the river maps say. The Environment Agency's river zones leave surface water out, so it only shows up in the postcode measures further down.
The Environment Agency also publishes a climate-adjusted version of the river zones, and on that map about 21% of Homerton's postcodes fall in the high-probability band. It describes what the agency's modelling expects a hotter century to do to the same ground.
Insurance follows these maps. A home inside the high-risk zone can mean higher premiums, a larger flood excess or fewer insurers willing to quote. Get a buildings insurance quote on the exact address early, while the solicitor is still on the searches, because that quote shows how insurers see the house.
The postcode-level picture combines several measures, including surface water. Of the 638 Homerton postcodes assessed, about 38% are rated high on at least one of them, about 27% medium on at least one, and about 46% low on at least one. One postcode can appear in more than one of those shares, which is why they add up to more than the whole.
Counting homes gives a starker picture. The Environment Agency's rivers-and-sea assessment lists 2,643 properties in the 97 Homerton postcodes that carry some risk. Of those, 1,930 are at high risk, 39 at medium, 97 at low and 486 at very low. Postcodes with no river or sea risk at all don't appear in that list. Among the postcodes that are listed, high risk is the normal result. Homes here are mostly either clear of the river or well inside its reach.
The Environment Agency's modelled extents also show whether a defence is in the way. About 18% of Homerton's postcodes fall inside the high-risk extent when defences are ignored, and about 16% are still inside it when defences are included. A defence counts as present in the model, which doesn't mean the house behind it stays dry, and here the defended figure is barely lower than the undefended one. The agency records only two actual flood events, the latest in December 1947, when a main river overflowed its channel with no raised defences in the way.
The nearest tide gauge in the national record is at Portsmouth, where the sea rose at about 2 millimetres a year between 1962 and 2023. That gauge is a long way from the Lea, and it describes the past rate on another coast.
Flood risk in Homerton is poor: a large share of the area is in the high-risk zone, and most of the properties the Environment Agency lists are rated high.