Balat & Fener

Balat – Fener (Merdivenli Yokuş)

Pastel houses on stepped lanes, with vintage cafés

Hours

The neighbourhood is always open; cafés mostly morning to evening

Tickets

Free

Address

An old quarter on the Golden Horn's west bank; the colourful stepped lane is just above Kiremit Caddesi

Once home to Greek, Jewish and Armenian communities, it is a tangle of old timber and brick houses painted red, yellow and blue along steep stepped lanes. Vintage cafés and design shops have sprung up in every alley. The signature shot is in front of the coloured houses on the Merdivenli Yokuş steps, where people queue in the afternoon. Add the red-brick Greek school on the hill, the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the iron Bulgarian church by the water, and half a day disappears.