Beyoglu is where Istanbul's shopping, looking, eating, and entertaining heart beats. It is a busy neighborhood day and night, cosmopolitan and at times chaotic. This is where you can find great food at decent prices, cheap beers as well as expensive dinners. It is also the cultural heart of the city with movie theaters, art galleries, and museums including the Pera Museum, the most important in Beyoglu and among the top museums in Istanbul.
The ever-crowded Istiklal Street crosses Beyoglu from Tünel and Asmalımescit neighborhoods to Taksim Square and is what comes to people's mind first when they think of Beyoglu. A nostalgic tram crosses Istiklal Street, but it is better to walk. The side streets just off Istiklal Street offer pleasant surprises whether for art, food, or drinks and are waiting to be discovered.
Beyoglu, also known as the Pera district, is part of Galata, a trade colony of the Genoese and the Venetians formed during Byzantine times.
After the conquest of Istanbul in 1453, the colony continued its existence under Ottoman rule. The transformation of this region into a wealthy Western-oriented district happened in the mid-19th century. It was where wealthy foreigners, ambassadors, and influential Jewish, Armenian, and Greek minorities lived. It was the finance capital of the Ottoman Empire, not unlike Wall Street of those times. Neoclassical and art nouveau buildings are a testament to that period.
After the founding of the Turkish Republic, it lost importance as a financial and influential district in state affairs, but it has kept its distinct Western feel and remains the symbol of the West in the eyes of Istanbul residents. Hence until the 1950s, Taksim and Beyoglu were a special district for the Turkish people too.
That all changed with the influx of rural people immigrating to Istanbul from around Turkey who were building slums in the peripheries of the city after Wall Street-backed right-wing parties promised to create immediate wealth for everyone. Unfortunately, that promise happened to be mostly by land speculation as opposed to the period of Atatürk when wealth was generated through labor and production. To date, 60% of the city is still made of illegal or once illegal but later transformed into legal buildings by politicians. These buildings are called gecekondus, and they still are an ongoing concern in Istanbul.
The only major place these slum people were able to take hold in Istanbul city center was Beyoglu, so the region was inundated with poor young people with no jobs. Needless to say, crime flourished in the 70s and 80s and, although contained in recent years, it still goes on in the boundaries of Beyoglu, along with some notorious bars.
Spend some time whether in a small passage cafe off Istiklal or head for shopping, food, or entertainment.
The population of Beyoglu changed after Istiklal Street was converted to a pedestrian street in 1990 and the arrival of Turkish and foreign highly educated, well-paid people. The first people to settle in the neighborhood after the Istiklal Street changes were artists, professors, and bohemians. Later on came business, then big business, and finally high-end shops. Nowadays it is the cosmopolitan, lively district of Istanbul. Most buildings have been renovated, upper-class restaurants and bars have flourished, and the side streets became multicultural, not unlike a piece of NYC with hip new cafes, bars, and restaurants springing up monthly.
Today, the Beyoglu area is the place for shopping for antiques, old maps, old books, stamps, fine dining, partying, and people-watching. There are four districts worth mentioning in the Beyoglu area: Asmalımescit, Cihangir, Galata, and Çukurcuma. Tarlabaşı is a rundown neighborhood you should avoid, as it is notorious for criminals.
Galata Tower and the Galata Whirling Dervish Hall (Galata Mevlevihanesi) are the most important historic landmarks of the Beyoglu district.
Walking from Taksim on Istiklal Street, or walking up the Galip Dede/Yüksek Kaldırım street from Karaköy, or simply taking the Tünel (one-stop metro) from Karaköy.