İstiklal Avenue

İstiklal runs about a kilometre and a half from Taksim Square down to Tünel, and it was the Grande Rue de Péra - the European quarter's main street, lined with embassies, passages, churches and department stores built for a nineteenth-century cosmopolitan population. Much of that fabric survives above shop level: the arcaded Çiçek Pasajı, the Cité de Péra, Saint Antoine's neo-Gothic church, the Greek and Armenian schools, the art nouveau apartment blocks. At street level it is now international chains, bookshops, bakeries and a permanent moving crowd, with the restored red tram clanging its way through them. Side streets are where the interest concentrates - Nevizade's meyhanes, the antique dealers of Çukurcuma, the music shops of Galip Dede running down to Galata. It is the busiest street in the country and pickpocketing is a genuine problem in the crush; keep bags in front.

What you actually see

• The red tram - the historic line down the middle of the street.
• The passages - Çiçek Pasajı and the covered arcades.
• The upper facades - nineteenth-century architecture above the shops.
• The side streets - meyhanes, antiques and music shops.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Mornings are walkable; evenings and weekends are shoulder-to-shoulder. The tram queues at both ends.

Honest expectations

It is extremely crowded, and pickpocketing is common - carry nothing in back pockets. Street level is chain retail; the architecture is above eye height. Demonstrations occasionally close Taksim end.

Nearby

Galata Tower and the Mevlevi lodge are downhill at Tünel; Pera Museum and Çukurcuma are just off the avenue.