Voyay walking tour

Factory Footprints of Modern Şişli

Follow breweries, workshops, markets, and communities through changing Şişli

Istanbul, Turkey
10 stops
153 min
5.2 km
History

Free in the Voyay app

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This walk uncovers a Şişli rarely visible from its busy avenues. Instead of treating Bomonti as a nightlife destination, it follows the factories, hospitals, workshops, and international communities that turned Istanbul’s northern outskirts into a modern urban district. You will discover textile production hidden inside Osmanbey apartment blocks, examine the Bomonti brewery’s transformation into a cultural complex, and see Ara Güler’s working Istanbul through unforgettable photographs. Industrial lanes and a shape-shifting market reveal how buildings and neighborhood economies keep finding new uses. The route also restores people to the industrial story. A memory site, community school, football ground, and historic cemetery introduce the journalists, workers, merchants, engineers, migrants, and minority families who shaped Feriköy and Şişli. This tour is ideal for travelers interested in urban history, labor, photography, architecture, and adaptive reuse. Expect busy commercial streets, uneven pavements, intimate neighborhood spaces, and a richer understanding of how modern Istanbul was actually made.

Try the first stop

Free sample · Stop 1

Hamidiye Etfal Clock Tower

An ornate clock tower marking Şişli’s pioneering modern medical infrastructure.

This clock tower and adjoining prayer space survive from the historic Hamidiye Etfal children’s hospital complex. Established as Şişli expanded, the institution brought regulated schedules, specialized staff, utilities, and public services into the growing district. Notice how the ornate late Ottoman monument now competes visually with traffic, construction, and newer hospital buildings.

The route

10 stops, in order.

1
Stop 1 · Free sample
Hamidiye Etfal Clock Tower
An ornate clock tower marking Şişli’s pioneering modern medical infrastructure.
2
Stop 2
Osmanbey Textile District
Apartment blocks conceal a fast-moving network of fashion production and trade.
3
Stop 3
23,5 Hrant Dink Hafıza Mekânı
An intimate memory site confronting minority citizenship, journalism, and urban belonging.
Stop 4
Feriköy Protestant Cemetery
Multilingual gravestones reveal the international networks behind Istanbul’s industrial growth.
5
Stop 5
Bomonti Brewery
A landmark brewery transformed from industrial workplace into a cultural complex.
6
Stop 6
Silahşör and Birahane Streets
Industrial fragments expose Bomonti’s shift from production to profitable redevelopment.
Stop 7
Ara Güler Museum
Powerful photographs return workers and everyday lives to Istanbul’s industrial story.
8
Stop 8
Bomonti Covered Market
One market hall alternates between organic produce and Istanbul’s material memories.
9
Stop 9
Feriköy Stadium
A neighborhood football ground preserves worker-era recreation, identity, and local pride.
10
Stop 10
Kurtuluş Greek School
A surviving community school humanizes Feriköy’s diverse industrial and residential history.