The Arcades and Cinemas of İstiklal Avenue

Enter the route at the Taksim end of İstiklal Avenue and for the first few hundred metres look only at the upper floors. Shop windows at street level keep changing, but above them the masonry facades, bay windows and window mouldings of the late 19th century remain. This look is the product of a transformation that sped up after the Tanzimat reforms, especially under Sultan Abdülaziz.

Stop when you reach the Ağa Mosque; the large building right next to it is Rumeli Han. Commissioned by Sarıcazade Ragıp Pasha, chief chamberlain to Sultan Abdülhamid II, it opened in 1894, and the year is written in Roman numerals over the entrance on İstiklal. The architect is not known for certain; it is thought to be the work of August Jasmund or Konstantinos Pappas, who built Ragıp Pasha's other buildings. The overall character is neoclassical, but the main door on the street is eclectic, with baroque and Empire ornament concentrated around it. Ragıp Pasha's three hans were named after continents the empire reached, Rumeli, Anadolu and Afrika.

In its early years the han housed cloth merchants, bicycle sellers and carpet dealers. From the 1990s theatre and concert halls and artists' studios moved in, and the building closed in 2012. During restoration work a passage beneath the building came to light, said to connect with the neighbouring hans; it has been protected as a registered monument since 1978. As restoration was still under way at last report, do not expect to go in; look at the ornament of the main door and the facade as a whole from the opposite pavement, then carry on towards Galatasaray.

Source: Smart Beyoğlu; Kültür Envanteri; TRT Haber; Wikipedia (İstiklal Caddesi).

A few minutes on you reach one of the widest facades on the avenue. According to the Cultural Inventory, this building, designed by Alexandre Vallaury as a residence for Abraham Pasha, opened in 1883 and soon housed the Cercle d'Orient, one of the empire's first social clubs. At the time it had the widest frontage on İstiklal.

Before it became a cinema, the hall on the Yeşilçam Sokağı side served as a gymnasium, a circus and a skating rink. It opened at the end of 1924 as the Melek (Angel) Cinema, named after the Art Nouveau angel statues on either side of the screen, although today's operator links the name to the Melek Apartment at the entrance. With gilded ceilings and baroque and rococo decoration, the hall seated about 875. In later decades it became known, as the Emek, as one of the cinemas of Yeşilçam Sokağı.

The cinema closed in 2009. The building was demolished and rebuilt in 2013, and the hall reopened in May 2016 on the fifth floor as the Emek Stage. The old hall's baroque and rococo decorative elements were kept and reused, while the seating is arranged vertically rather than horizontally and holds about 500. Today it hosts film screenings as well as concerts, theatre and galas.

You can only enter with an event ticket, so check the programme in advance if you want to catch a show. Otherwise, look at the street facade from the opposite pavement and walk to the mouth of Yeşilçam Sokağı; the next stop, the Atlas Arcade, is a few steps away.

Source: Kültür Envanteri; Grand Pera Emek Sahnesi; Wikipedia (Emek Sineması).

The Atlas Arcade is the story of a mansion that became a cinema and a cinema that became a museum. It was built in the 1870s as a winter residence for Agop Köçeyan, a close friend of Sultan Abdülaziz and a palace banker; sources give the date as 1870 or 1877. According to the Atatürk Cultural Centre, the building, with its neoclassical touches, served as a courthouse for the British occupation forces in 1918-1922, then passed to the Directorate of Post and Telegraph, and in 1932 was turned into an entertainment venue. The Atlas Cinema, opened in 1948 with 1,860 seats, was one of the largest cinemas in the Beyoğlu of its day.

The building was transferred to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 1992, underwent a thorough restoration from 2019, and the Istanbul Cinema Museum opened in 2021. The museum has three floors visited on a single ticket. The first two hold the permanent display and the third temporary exhibitions. Expect wax figures of Yeşilçam actors, belongings of famous directors, film posters and an interactive section called the digital memory pool. In the restored mansion rooms, look at the painted ceilings and walls; sources attribute them to the French painter Hippolyte Berteaux.

The Atlas Cinema is screening films again, with classics and new releases side by side. Catching a show after the museum is a fine way to end the cinema part of the route in an actual auditorium. The part of the arcade facing the street is still a passage full of shops. Check current days, hours and tickets for the museum and cinema on their official websites before you go.

Source: AKM İstanbul; Atlas 1948 resmi sitesi; Wikipedia (Atlas Pasajı).

Walk on towards Galatasaray and at the corner of Sahne Sokağı you face a three-storey facade, first called the Cité de Péra and known today as the Çiçek (Flower) Arcade. The Greek banker Hristaki Zografos Efendi bought the plot of the Naum Theatre, badly damaged in the fire of 1870, and commissioned the architect Kleanthis Zannos. Opened in 1876, it was a complex of 24 shops in the arcade and apartments on the upper floors, and in its early years it was also called the Hristaki Arcade.

The name comes from flower sellers who opened shops in the arcade. Sources tie this to different periods; some mention Russian émigré women who arrived after the 1917 revolution, others the time after 1908 when the grand vizier Küçük Said Pasha owned the arcade. Through the 20th century it was remembered as a meeting place for writers and artists.

What changed the building's fate was a sudden collapse on the night of 10 May 1978. The neglected building fell in that night and stood in ruins for a decade. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1988 and renovated again in 2005. The present arcade is reinforced concrete, and the courtyard at the centre of its three storeys is covered by a glass roof and a glass dome.

The main thing to look at here is the facade. Notice the sculpted decoration, the caryatids and the stopped clock with Roman numerals above the entrance. Then walk under the glass-covered court and out through the side door to the Fish Market; the entrance of the Avrupa Arcade is a few steps away.

Source: Bellek Mekanları; Wikipedia (Çiçek Pasajı).

A few steps through the Fish Market bring you into the Avrupa (Europe) Arcade, which links Sahne Sokağı with Meşrutiyet Caddesi. It too was built on land cleared by the fire of 1870; sources say the Jardin des Fleurs hotel stood here before the fire. Commissioned by the Armenian merchant Onnik Düz and designed by the architect Domenico Pulgher, the arcade was completed in 1874.

It is a neoclassical passage about 56 metres long, three storeys high and lined with 22 shops. The facade uses stone brought from Malta and the floor Trieste stone from Italy. Look up: large female statues stand on the upper inner facades and part of the ceiling is glazed. Sources read the statues differently, some saying they represent crafts, others that they are figures from Greek mythology. In its early years the arcade was lit by gas lamps set in front of its famous mirrors, which is why it is also called the Aynalı (Mirrored) Arcade.

When it opened there were a shoemaker, barbers, tailors, a grocer, a haberdasher, soap makers and a carpet seller; later came watchmakers, piano makers and fashion houses. The arcade passed to the state in 1929 and was sold to the Emlak ve Eytam Bank in 1936. Today the shops sell postcards, ceramics, souvenirs, carpets and antiques.

You read the neoclassical order best from the middle of the arcade, with both ends in view. Do not block shop entrances when taking photos. Leave by the Meşrutiyet Caddesi exit, turn left towards Tünel and you reach the back entrance of the Hazzopulo Arcade.

Source: Wikipedia (Avrupa Pasajı; tr ve en).

The Hazzopulo Arcade links Meşrutiyet Caddesi with İstiklal Avenue, and once inside, the noise of the street suddenly drops away. Built by the Greek merchant Hacopulo, it opened on 15 April 1871; sources name different members of the family as founder. It is also known as the Danışman Passage or the Han Passage.

It is a neoclassical masonry complex, with buildings of partly two and partly four storeys set around a courtyard. The İstiklal entrance is a narrow corridor covered by six cross vaults, while the Meşrutiyet side has three. Look at the stones underfoot; the floor is paved with stone brought from Yalıköy, formerly called Podima.

The most interesting detail in the arcade's history has to do with the press. Ahmet Mithat Efendi's printing house worked here, and Namık Kemal published his newspaper İbret on its presses. The arcade also had barbers, tailors and carpet makers, and for a time it was one of the meeting places of the Young Turks.

Today the lower floors are lively with tea stalls and small shops. Sources note that the upper floors have long been neglected and that the arcade is waiting for restoration because of ownership disputes. When tables fill the courtyard, keep the way clear, as this is still a working passage between two streets. Having a tea in the courtyard while looking up at the window rhythm and the proportions of the floors is the easiest way to see the 19th century that survives behind the shop windows of İstiklal. Leave through the narrow corridor on the İstiklal side and continue towards Tünel.

Source: Kültür Envanteri; Wikipedia (Hazzopulo Pasajı).

The last stop, the Botter Building at İstiklal Avenue 235, is known as Istanbul's first Art Nouveau building. Designed in 1900-1901 by the Italian architect Raimondo D'Aronco, it was built for Jean Botter, a Dutchman who was the palace's official tailor and fashion designer under Abdülhamid II. According to the municipality's page it was the first building in the Ottoman Empire used as a fashion house; Botter's atelier dressed members of the court and the Ottoman elite until after the First World War. The ground floor held the boutique, the first floor the workshop and storage, and the upper floors apartments.

Look at the facade from the opposite pavement. Curving lines, plant motifs, floral borders and medallions of human heads wreathed in flowers introduce D'Aronco's vocabulary; Wikipedia reads the reliefs of smiling female heads with wavy hair on the western facade as Demeter. The building was one of the first apartment blocks with a steel frame and is said to have been the second building after the Pera Palace to have a lift.

When the Balkan Wars and the First World War hurt business, the Botter family sold the building in 1917 and moved to Paris. Many years later it was restored by the municipality's heritage teams and reopened in April 2023 as the Casa Botter Art and Design Centre. The ground-floor rooms host changing exhibitions. According to the municipality's page it is closed on Mondays; check the current exhibition and hours before you go.

From here Tünel square is a few minutes' walk. You can ride the F2 funicular down to Karaköy or take the T2 nostalgic tram back to the top of the avenue.

Source: İBB Atatürk Kitaplığı, Casa Botter sayfası; Wikipedia (Botter Apartmanı).