Kadıköy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kadıköy (known as Chalcedon in antiquity), is a large and populous cosmopolitan district on the Anatolian side of İstanbul, Turkey, on the shore of the Marmara Sea, opposite the city. It is a residential and commercial district, and with its bars, cinemas and bookshops Kadıköy is the cultural centre of the Anatolian side.
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[edit] History
Kadıköy is an older settlement than the city of Istanbul. Relics have been found going back to 3000BC, and articles of stone, bone, ceramic, jewelry and bronze prove a continuous settlement from prehistoric times, through the period when this was the Greek city of Chalcedon (7th century BC). Chalcedon became known as the city of the blind, the story being that Byzantium was founded following a prophecy that a great capital would be built 'opposite the city of the blind' (meaning that the people of Chalcedon must have been blind not to see the obvious value of the peninsula on the Golden Horn as a natural defensive harbour. And true enough Chalcedon changed hands time and time again as Persians, Bithynians, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Byzantines and Turks passed through the area, being badly damaged in the riotous fourth crusade and eventually passing into Ottoman hands in 1353, a full hundred years before Istanbul was eventually conquered (thus Kadıköy has the oldest Mosque in Istanbul (built before the conquest of Constantinople).
At the time of the conquest Chalcedon was a rural settlement outside the protection of the city. It was soon put under the jurisdiction of the Istanbul courts, hence the name Kadıköy, 'village of the judge'. In the Ottoman period Kadıköy became a popular market for agricultural goods and in time developed into a residential area for people who would commute to the city by boat. The population was the typical Ottoman Istanbul mix of Armenians, Greeks and Turks. Kadıköy has several churches and synagogues (Greek, Armenian, Serbian and some Protestant).
[edit] Living (and shopping) in Kadıköy today
The centre of Kadıköy today is the hub of traffic for people commuting from the Asian side of the city to the European. There is a big bus and minibus terminal next to the ferry docks, the main train terminus for trains to Anatolia and nearby Harem has coach services to Anatolia.
But it is the ferry-boats that are most important, and the central market area of Kadıköy is right behind the ferry dock. The main road by the docks is unfortunately the least attractive aspect of Kadıköy, a busy road, crowded with buses, dolmuses and honking taxis, the buildings huge grey ugly office monstrosities with billboards and business signs plastered all over them, beggars, hawkers and shoe-shiners everywhere. But don't be put off, the area gets prettier as you move through the streets away from the shore. There is a helium balloon moored on the shore which will take you up for a great view of the area, and indeed the city of Istanbul across the Bosphorus.
This is a very busy shopping district, with a great variety of atmosphere and building style; tiny narrow alleyways and shopping arcades; pavements crowded with tough-looking street vendors selling everything from socks to pirate copies of popular novels; classy avenues like the pedestrianised Bahariye Caddesi; and shiny modern shopping centres, especially the huge shiny Carrefour shopping centre right behind the centre of Kadıköy. In the streets behind the post office there is a large number of well-known bookshops, both new and second-hand, craft-shops and picture-framers, and a number of shops selling music CDs and related ephemera (like film posters and t-shirts). Vacant-looking desperate youth come to the arcade called Akmar Pasajı to buy things like heavy metal t-shirts, and cheap silver jewelry. On Sundays the whole area turns into a big second-hand book and music street market. However not all the culture on sale in Kadıköy is honest ware; the area is Istanbul's centre for pirated books, music, DVD films and software, with little apparent control byt the authorities. On the other hand the selection is incredible, there are few games, films or CDs that cannot be found in a good search through Kadıköy. Being a crowded shopping district Kadıköy has its share of buskers, shoe shine boys, glue sniffers and schoolchildren in the streets selling flowers, chewing gum and packets of tissues, or just begging.
There is plenty of residential property in the centre of Kadıköy, mostly aging now, and working class, but you can still find quiet suburban streets. The area is home to many students as well as a small number of foreign residents.
At the top of the shopping district there is an intersection, with a statue of a bull on it, called Altıyol ('six ways'), where a road leads to the civic buildings and a huge street market called Salıpazarı ('Tuesday market'). Here there is a polluted stream running into the Marmara Sea, Kurbağalıdere, and beside it a smelly park, Yoğurtçu, where crowds of angry young men gather after football games. Behind the civic buildings is the working-class residential districts of Hasanpaşa and Fikirtepe.
The centre left Republican People's Party (CHP) is usually successful in Kadiköy in both local and national elections, (in dramatic contrast to Kadıköy's neighbouring district, the conservative Üsküdar). Since the mid-90's the mayor has been Selami Öztürk of the CHP. It is he who has guided the great growth of shopping in Kadiköy especially the Carrefour Nautilus project.
Marmara University has most of its buildings in Kadıköy including a large campus, and on the hill named Kayışdağı, is the largest private university in Istanbul Yeditepe University. In the centre of the shopping district there is an important basketball training school, Caferaga Spor Salonu.
The major Haydarpaşa Terminal of the Turkish State Railways is located close to Kadıköy centrum, serving east- and southbound international, domestic and regional trains.
[edit] Eat, drink and be merry
With all this to offer it is little wonder that Kadıköy attracts great loyalty and sympathy from its residents and yet there is more.... For many the joy of Kadıköy is in the little side streets packed with all kinds of cafes, bars, and restaurants along with a rich selection of cinemas (such as Reks, Sürreya).
The market area is mostly closed to traffic and contains: a great variety of fast food such as toasted sandwiches, hamburgers and doner kebab, (hungry students gorge themselves on ridiculously large sandwiches called 'maniac' or 'psychopath'); kebab restaurants; all kinds of cafes; chocolate-cake patisseries; serious bridge schools; bars to hear live jazz, folk, rock music; working class tea and backgammon houses.
Behind the centre is a large shopping and residential district winding uphill to the pedestrianised street called Bahariye Caddesi. This area took on a new atmosphere in the economic boom of the 1990s and a many new bars were opened.
Kadıköy is not glitzy, more beer than champagne, lots of kebab, kokoreç and fried mussels, little haute cuisine. It's not as big a nightlife area as Beyoğlu (which also goes on much later into the night), nor is does it have anything like the class of Nişantaşı (for shopping) or the Bosphorus (for nightlife). But it is buzzing, more relaxed, you are likely to run into people you know, it is still fun, and cheaper. In other words Kadıköy is student heaven.
And the seagulls swooping and squawking overhead give the whole area a surreal and crazy ceiling. And a south wind sometimes brings in the scent of the sea.
Places to eat and drink include:
- Baylan Pastanesi - famous for it's chocolate pudding
- Petek Büfe - an ancıent purveyor of toasted sandwıches
- Tek Bufe - a chain of burger and juice places on the Anatolian side
- Reks Bufe - toasted sandwich place opposite the Reks Cinema
- Mercan Kokoreç
- Marmara Kafe - the tea and toast place in Akmar Pasaj
- Son Gemi - another cafe near Akmar
Kadife Sokak is known as 'bar street', say no more, bars and cafes include:
- Orta Kapı/Karga /Arka Oda/Hint Çayı (which sells Indian style tea with milk)/Karin/Cafe Mug/
[edit] The smart residential areas beyond Kadıköy itself
Further down the coast away from the city, there are many expensive shops and the area goes more up market in areas such as Moda and Fenerbahçe which are attractive, old-established residential areas, both in Kadıköy, both with nice areas to sit by the sea and have tea, or just sit and chat and watch the sun setting behind the old city of Istanbul. There is a nice walk in this direction along the sea-front from Kadıköy, where young people come to sit by the sea and drink beer, or you take the tram up to Moda from Kadıköy.
Moda is an old-established, quiet, cosmpolitan Istanbul neighbourhood, but is getting a little tired now, with not enough car parking and some run down shops and buildings. Like so much of Istanbul too many houses have been pulled down and replaced by apartment buildings, but still Moda is one of the most pleasant residential districts in the city. There are still churches in Moda with active congregations), and well-known schools (St Joseph, Kadıköy Anadolu Lisesi). There is an attractive little theatre in Moda, Oyun Atolyesi, founded by former (BBC soap opera) Eastenders actor Haluk Bilginer.
Another smart new district is Acibadem, home to one of the best-known private hospitals in the city and a long avenue of smart cafes, restaurants and ice cream parlours serving the residents of the tidy streets in the district.
Beyond here the huge stadium of Fenerbahçe football club dominates the skyline and then begins the long and impressive shopping avenue of Bağdat Caddesi and the plush neighbourhoods between the avenue and the coast road. Until the 1950s these areas, such as Kalamış, Göztepe, Erenköy, and Suadiye were summer houses for the city's wealthy and middle class. Since the Bosphorus Bridge was built it is possible to commute from here to the European side and most of these summer houses have been pulled down and replaced with apartment buildings, still some of the nicest residential areas of the city. The coast here is very attractive, with a long stretch of seaside park, yacht marinas, and the streets behind the coast (in areas like Caddebostan) lined with bars and cafes for Bağdat Caddesi's smart young set. This is one of the most desirable residential areas of Istanbul.
From Bostancı onwards the quality of housing gets progressively worse as you get further from the city, the glitzy business families merge into neighbourhoods of retired and working families. There are no more villas and the apartment buildings are narrower and more closely crowded together. Bostanci itself is a busy shopping district built around a railway station.
[edit] Inland, around the E5
Inland from the coast there is a great deal of housing development, some of it grubby, with little infrastructure or planning, but most of it good quality areas like Kozyatağı and Erenköy, home to Istanbul's middle class, most of whom commute across the Bosphorus bridges to the European side. These areas are mainly avenues and tree-lined streets of four to six-storey apartment buildings with gardens and car-parking around them. They are well-provided with schools and hospitals, shops and restaurants; there is a big Carrefour on the E5 highway in this part of Kadıköy.
From the late 1990s the previously barren land north of the E5 began to sprout new luxury housing developments such as Ataşehir with their own shops, private colleges, sports centres and other excellent facilities.
[edit] Fenerbahçe SK
The district is home to the Turkish giants Fenerbahçe SK's home venue Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium and following important victories the whole of Kadıköy heaves with celebrating fans. The stadium will host UEFA Cup 2009 final match.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- [1] The Kadikoy municipality website in English.
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