Galataport is the reworked cruise terminal on the Bosphorus shore between Karakoy and Tophane. The terminal itself is underground, which leaves a kilometre and a half of open waterfront that was closed to the public for a century. Along it are shops, restaurants and the Istanbul Modern art museum in its new building. The promenade […]

Karakoy spent most of the twentieth century as a port and hardware district. Over the last fifteen years the ground floors filled with design studios, ceramics workshops and small clothing labels, while the ship chandlers upstairs mostly stayed put. The result is a few streets where you can buy hand-thrown ceramics, contemporary jewellery and Turkish […]

The Book Bazaar occupies a small courtyard between the Grand Bazaar and Beyazit Mosque, and it has been selling books on the same spot since Ottoman times. Before that the site held a paper market, which makes the trade here older than printing in this country. The stalls carry secondhand Turkish books, old prints, calligraphy […]

Tahtakale is the wholesale quarter behind the Spice Bazaar, and it is where the city actually buys things. The streets are narrow, stacked with cardboard boxes, and full of porters pushing trolleys through gaps that look too small for them. Each lane has a speciality: one for coffee and dried fruit, another for kitchenware, another […]

Nuruosmaniye Street runs from the mosque of the same name down to one of the main gates of the Grand Bazaar, and it is where Istanbul keeps its established jewellers, carpet dealers and antique shops. The difference from the bazaar itself is the pace. Prices here are marked more often than negotiated, the shops have […]

Cevahir opened in 2005 in Sisli and was for several years the largest shopping centre in Europe by floor area. It holds around three hundred and forty shops on six levels, under a glass roof carrying what is claimed to be the world’s second-largest clock face. The mix is mainstream rather than luxury: high-street fashion, […]

The Grand Bazaar began in 1461 as two masonry halls built on the order of Mehmed II, and it grew outwards from there for four centuries. Today it covers sixty-one streets under one roof and holds around four thousand shops, which makes it one of the largest covered markets in the world. The trades are […]

The Spice Bazaar was built in 1664 as part of the New Mosque complex, and its rents were designed to fund the mosque and its charities. The Turkish name, Misir Carsisi, refers to Egypt because the customs revenue that paid for it came from Cairo. Under the L-shaped vault there are around eighty shops selling […]

Arasta Bazaar is a single row of shops built into the retaining wall behind the Blue Mosque. It was constructed in the seventeenth century as part of the mosque complex, its rents intended to maintain the building above it. There are around seventy shops, dealing mainly in carpets, kilims, Iznik-style ceramics, textiles and jewellery. Because […]

Istinye Park is the largest shopping centre on the European side, built in 2007 in the Sariyer district north of the city centre. It holds around three hundred shops across several levels, with the luxury brands grouped in their own wing. The design is unusual for a mall: the central section is open to the […]

Forum Istanbul opened in Bayrampasa in 2009 and is one of the larger shopping centres in the city, with around two hundred and fifty shops on two main levels. Beyond the shops, the complex holds Turkuazoo, the country’s first public aquarium, with a tunnel through the main tank; a Madame Tussauds; a snow park; and […]