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' is an insertion indicator.
'central' says to take the centre.
The middle letter of 'hackney' is 'k'.
'sees' enclosing 'k' is 'SEEKS'.
'or' is the link.
(Other definitions for seeks that I've seen before include "Looks for" , "Hunts" , "Goes in pursuit" .)