CHANGING BEYOGLU
Pera was the city’s most popular district during the Tanzimat period of reforms. In the first years of the Republic as well, it was the heart of entertainment, shopping, culture and art. Then the Second World War, the 6-7th September incidents and the wealth tax take their toll, and the dressmaker and tailoring establishments and shops selling imported goods close one by one like falling leaves. Turkish women appear now in their ’Little Lady’ outfits. Shopping and entertainment habits change, arcades are abandoned to their fate, the mirrored arcade known as Şark Aynalı Pasaj (Passage Orientale), for example. Built in the 1840s, this arcade was renovated in 1908 in Neoclassical style. Originally it was a T-shaped passage without a roof, like a narrow street lined with shops on either side, with one entrance on Asmalımescit and another on İstiklal Street. Its respectable establishments included Polonezköy, a famous charcuterie of the day, Le Restaurant Passage Oriental, the dressmaker Terzi Mulieri, the notions merchant Kalagas, and Kristich, the favored coiffeur of the ladies of Pera...