Unspecified/General

Running for more than a kilometre through the heart of Beyoglu from Taksim Square down toward the Galata district, Istiklal Caddesi is the most famous pedestrian avenue in Istanbul and one of the busiest streets in the world, walked by hundreds of thousands of people on a typical day. In Ottoman times the street, then known as the Grande Rue de Pera, was the elegant centre of the European quarter, lined with embassies, churches, theatres, patisseries and grand apartment buildings in the neoclassical and art nouveau styles, and much of that nineteenth- and early twentieth-century architecture survives behind the modern shopfronts. Down the middle of the avenue trundles a historic red tram, restored as a nostalgic link to the past and a favourite for photographs as it threads through the crowds. The street is a continuous parade of shops, bookstores, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, bars and music venues, and the side streets and arcades opening off it, such as the Cicek Pasaji flower passage and the fish-restaurant lanes, hide some of the city's most atmospheric corners. Cultural landmarks line the route, from churches of several denominations to consulates, galleries and the grand old Pera Palace Hotel nearby. By day it is a place for shopping and strolling, by night a centre of the city's entertainment and nightlife, alive until the small hours. Anchored by Taksim Square at one end and the Tunel funicular, one of the oldest underground railways in the world, at the other, and easily reached by metro, Istiklal Caddesi is less a single sight than a slice of the city's life, and walking its length is one of the essential experiences of a visit to Istanbul. The street has long been the stage for the public life of the modern city, the route of celebrations, demonstrations and processions, and its mood shifts through the day from the morning calm to the dense evening crowds that fill it shoulder to shoulder. The grand buildings that line it, many dating from the cosmopolitan heyday of Pera, repay a glance upward above the shopfronts, their ornate facades, churches and old apartment houses recalling an era when this was the most European quarter of the Ottoman capital. The arcades and side streets hide bookshops, record stores, meyhane taverns and hidden churches, and the historic Cicek Pasaji and the fish-market lanes nearby are among the city's most characterful spots for a meal or a drink. Day or night, walking Istiklal is to feel the pulse of contemporary Istanbul, and it remains one of the liveliest and most atmospheric streets in the city.

Type: Street

Address: Istanbul, Turkey