Hunts or looks around central Hackney (5)
I believe the answer is:
seeks
'hunts' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'looks around central hackney' is the wordplay.
'looks' becomes 'sees'.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'central' indicates the central letters.
The middle letter of 'hackney' is 'k'.
'sees' going around 'k' is 'SEEKS'.
'or' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for seeks that I've seen before include "Looks for" , "Hunts" , "Goes in pursuit" .)