Şişli
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Şişli is a crowded cosmopolitan district of İstanbul, Turkey, in the centre of the city. It is a business, shopping and residential area north of Taksim, the entertainment heart of the city.
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[edit] The grand past
Until 1800 Şişli was open countryside, used for hunting, agriculture and as the city's burial ground, and there are still a number of cemetries here. It was developed as a middle class residential district during the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the early years of the Republic (the late 19th-early 20th centuries). French culture had a great influence in this period and the big avenues of Şişli had a European look; big stone buildings with high ceilings and art nouveau wrought-iron balconies, little elevators on wires in the middle of the stairway and so on. This trading middle-class was comprised of Jews, Greeks and Armenians as well as Turks, many built homes in Şişli after a large fire in the district of Beyoğlu in 1870. Still today many of Istanbul's Armenians live in the Kurtuluş area of Şişli. The area was alslo popular with the Levantine trading families of this period and as the Ottoman empire contracted Şişli attracted migrants from the former lands in Greece and the Balkans. In the late 19th century Şişli was one of the first areas to be supplied with tramlines, electricity and a gas supply. The orphanage of Darulaceze and the large Şişli Etfal hospital were built here in this period, also the prominent French schools of St Michel and Notre Dame De Sion.
Following the founding of the Turkish Republic in the 1920's bigger and bigger buildings were put up along wide avenues such as Kalaskargazi Caddesi, the main road that runs through the middle of Şişli, with its little arcades of shops below tall buildings of apartments and offices. In the republic the area was still the residence of the middle-class, as well as traders there were now writers and poets and Şişli acquired theatres, cafes and other cultural amenities. The Hilton Hotel was built here in the 1950s and many others followed.
From the 1950's onwards people from Anatolia began to migrate to Istanbul in search of work. Illegally they built themselves little cottage on unclaimed or government-owned land (see gecekondu). Some of these people settled in parts of Şişli in the 1950s and 1960s, especially at the top of the district, around Mecidiyeköy.
[edit] The centre of Şişli today
Now the wealthy elite of central Şişli have moved further out of the city, the big buildings on the grand avenues are occupied by offices, banks, and big shops. Since the 1970s most older buildings have been pulled down replaced with soulless square rectangular blocks. The back streets are still residential but are now quite grubby; working-class families and students are crowded into narrow streets lined with tall grey buildings crammed together in rows, the only view from the windows being straight into the opposite neighbour's front room, unless you overlook one of the cemetries. The infrastructure only just copes with the amount of people living and working in these blocks, electricity cuts are common and parking spaces are like gold-dust. But Şişli is central, there are plenty of shops, cafes, pubs, and other amenities and these make life in Şişli still manageable.
In the 'gecekondu' districts life is harder, while some neighbourhoods remain very attractive indeed - (see section on individual neighbourhoods below).
[edit] Business and shopping
Being a central area well-served with public-transport and other infrastructure Şişli is a center of trade and shopping. The main road through Şişli up to the skyscrapers of Mecidiyeköy and beyond is now lined with office blocks and Europe's largest and the world's second largest (urban-area) shopping mall, Cevahir Mall, is situated here. Due to Şişli's middle-class past and the enduring quality of some neighbourhoods the area is home to many upmarket shops especially in the Nişantaşı area. Parking is an enduring problem, especially in the narrow side-streets.
People also come to Şişli for schooling; this city-centre area has some well-known high schools and a great number of 'dersane', evening and weekend schools where people come to cram for university or high school entrance examinations, or to learn English.
There are many well-established cafes and restaurants, including fast-food for the students and shoppers.
[edit] Neighbourhoods
- Kurtuluş - known as Tatavla in the Ottoman period, the area was home to a Greek (and later Armenian) community. The district was mostly wooden houses, was destroyed in a huge fire in 1929, and then rebuilt in narrow streets of stone and later concrete, lined with cafes, pattiseries and shops. This is a cosmopolitan district with a long history and has been home to a great many singers, artists, and actors. There are a number of attractive old apartment buildings, but many more have been built since the 1960's, are ugly and crammed together. After 1964/5 the Greek community mostly left the area, but some remain and the Greek school and churches are still active.
- Nişantaşı - a busy high-class shopping district for stylish bronzed ladies talking on mobile phones while driving jeeps. Pretty, narrow streets of 19th and early-20th century buildings housing the most expensive boutiques, parfumeries art galleries and cafes; Some of these buildings are architectural masterpieces, one of them houses Istanbul's Armani store. There are a number of well-known schools here too including some buildings of Marmara University, also the American Hospital. Parking is a problem and so is petty crime. Nişantaşı is not a night-life centre and is quiet in the evenings.
- Teşvikiye - uphill from Beşiktaş, near to the shops and restaurants of Nişantaşı, and a similarly old-established smart area with many classic European-style buildings, Teşvikiye is one of the most attractive residential neighbourhoods in Istanbul. Since the 19th century Teşvikiye has been home to many writers (including journalist Abdi Ipekçi who was assassinated here in 1979), politicians and a great number of prominent business families and still holds a well-established middle-class, including some descendants of Levantine and Jewish familes that built many of the beautiful stone apartment buildings of Teşvikiye in Ottoman times. Prominent buildings include the Milli Reassurans building (this one not ornate 19th century stonework but one of Istanbul's best examples of modernism) and the ornate Teşvikiye mosque, built by Sultan Abdulhamid II for non-Muslims converting to the faith ('teşvik' means 'support' in Turkish). Among the shops of Teşvikiye lies Gerekli Şeyler, Turkey's specialist importer of fantasy and gaming publications including Star Wars, Marvel and Wizards of the Coast.
- Mecidiyeköy - Business and shopping district north of Şişli; Istanbul's main market for computer equipment. Narrow streets of tall office buildings. A major intersection and bus terminal underneath a huge flyover, very noisy. Home of Galatasaray football club's Ali Sami Yen stadium. The Profilo shopping centre, cinema and bowling alley is here, its food court a popular eatery in the area.
- Okmeydanı - north of Şişli, home to some large hospitals. This was the archery practice ground of the Ottoman armies (which is the meaning of its name in Turkish), and an Ottoman mosque was built here. Later the land was planted with fruit trees, and in the 1960's turned over to developers for building as the city expanded. Darulaceze, the Ottoman-period orphanage is here, built in 1896.
- Kuştepe - a gecekondu (illegally built) district of poor housing occupied by gypsies and recent migrants from the countryside. Bilgi University has a campus here.
[edit] Politics
The mayor of Şişli is the active and charismatic Mustafa Sarıgül, an established presence on the Turkish centre-left, now with the CHP Republican People's Party. Under the slogan 'Smiling Happy Şişli' he is working to get the once glamorous area smartened up again, and certainly Nişantaşı is very smart indeed, although he is struggling to ensure car parking here and everywhere else in Şişli. He is on the board of Galatasaray football club, whose Ali Sami Yem stadium is in the Şişli neighbourhood of Mecidiyeköy. At New Year he parades in an open-topped bus dressed as Father Christmas.
[edit] Places of interest
- İstanbul's military museum, which houses the cannon used by Sultan Mehmed II in his conquest of Constantinople.
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, also once lived here. His house, where Atatürk reportedly made his plans for the modern republic, is now a museum.
- Şişli Mosque - the prominent 1940's mosque on the main road in the centre of the district. This is a major landmark, built in classic Ottoman style.
- Ali Sam Yen stadium - home of Galatasary Football Club
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Şişli Municipality
- Official website of Mustafa Sarıgül, mayor of Şişli
- Atatürk Museum on Istanbul portal
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