When giving directions to Meroddi Galata Mansion, we say “Serdar-ı Ekrem Caddesi.” But when our building was constructed, this street had another name: Yazıcı Sokak. And that old name bears the trace of a profession now scarcely remembered in the neighbourhood.
The street of printing houses
In nineteenth-century Galata, this street was home to lithographic printing houses — stone-print workshops. Maps, advertisements, commercial documents and labels were printed in these workshops; from morning to evening, the street smelled of ink and paper. The public named the street after its trade: Yazıcı, meaning printer. This is how street names work in Galata — Tımarcı comes from grooming horses, Otçu from grazing, and Yazıcı from writing. In this neighbourhood, signs are like gravestones for former trades — though thankfully, of the cheerful kind.
Habitation Yazıcı: the first name of our mansion
Our building rose at number 47 on this street in the early 1890s and was recorded at the time as Mansion / Habitation Yazıcı — Yazıcı Mansion. With its French architectural influences, the building was part of a story typical of its era: one of the Ottoman middle class’s first experiences of apartment living, as they moved from fire-prone wooden mansions to masonry flats. Families accustomed to mansion life tried a way of living previously seen only in European cities: separate apartments under one roof, a shared staircase and neighbours next door.
The street of good neighbours
Yazıcı Sokak was no ordinary street; by the end of the nineteenth century, Istanbul’s tallest and grandest apartment buildings lined it. Close by stood the magnificent courtyard building commissioned by the Belgian banker Helbig family, today known as Doğan Apartmanı; the Zellich, Vasiliadis, Camondo and Zarif apartment buildings rose nearby. Bankers, printers and the city’s new middle class shared one street — Galata’s cosmopolitan golden age was lived here in its most concentrated form.
A new name: the title of a commander-in-chief
In time, the printing houses moved away, and the street was renamed after the title of the legendary commander-in-chief of the Crimean War: Serdar-ı Ekrem. We have also told the story of Ömer Lütfi Lattas Pasha, who bore that title — the café on our ground floor takes its name from him as well. Thus, our building stands at the intersection of two names: the street’s new name at its door, and the old trade of the street in its identity.
Our suggestion to guests staying at Galata Mansion today is this: take your morning coffee and enjoy a short walk along the street. Peek into the courtyard of Doğan Apartmanı, and look up at the historic façades above the shop windows. With every step, you explore two streets at once — today’s Serdar-ı Ekrem and Yazıcı, still fragrant with the ghost of ink.
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