Petit Socco

The Petit Socco is not much of a square - a widening of the lanes with cafes on three sides and the Grand Mosque above - and its reputation is entirely historical. In the international zone decades it was the centre of Tangier's disreputable life: currency dealers, smugglers, informers and the writers who came for the cheapness and the absence of policing. Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch in Tangier and drank here; Bowles, Kerouac, Ginsberg and Genet all pass through the accounts. The Café Central and the Café Tingis are still on the square and are still cafes, which is a rarer survival than it sounds. What they serve now is mint tea to people who have read about the place. The medina around it is ordinary and residential, and the square's atmosphere is genuinely quiet compared to what is written about it, which is the honest thing to say.

History

Before 1923 many of the European consulates and the main banks stood around the square, and the State Bank of Morocco had its head office beside it from 1907 to 1952. By the early 20th century the British, Spanish, German and French post offices each faced it from one side, the Spanish one rebuilt in 1926 in art deco by José Blein Zarazaga, and the Hotel Fuentes and the Gran Café Central of that era still stand (Wikipedia, Petit Socco).

What you'll find

• A small widened lane - cafes on three sides with the Grand Mosque above.
• The same cafes - the Central and the Tingis still trading on the square.
• The international zone's centre - where the currency dealers and the writers sat.
• A quiet reality - much calmer now than the literature suggests.

When to go

Spring and autumn; late afternoon. An hour.

What to expect

It is small and quiet - visitors expecting the Tangier of the books are usually deflated. Cafe prices on the square are above the surrounding lanes. Touting in the approaches is persistent. There is nothing to enter.

Nearby

The Grand Socco is uphill; the kasbah is above the medina.

Key facts