Pera and Galata - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 405

is a venerable and distinguished institution. It was founded by Sultan
Beyazit II around the end of the fifteenth century as a school for the
imperial pages, anciliary to the one in Topkapı Sarayı. The school
was reorganized in 1868 under Sultan Abdül Aziz as a modern lycée
on the French model, with the instruction partly Turkish, partly in
French. It is the oldest Turkish institution of learning in the city with
a more or less continuous history; and for the past 100 years it has
been the best as well as the most famous of Turkish lycées. A large
proportion of the statesmen and intellectuals of Turkey have pursued
their studies there and it has undoubtedly played a major role in the
modernization of the country. It now has a university as well, situated
on the Bosphorus near Beşiktaş.
On the opposite side of the avenue from the Lycée, a short distance
before the square, we find a famous institution of quite another sort.
One might easily pass it by, for it is just a little alley that leads of to
the right from Istiklal Caddesi. This is the famous Çiçek Pasajı, the
Passage of Flowers. The Passage goes through an edifice known as the
Cité de Pera, a rococo structure erected in 1876 with a line of shops
on the ground floor and luxury apartments above; notice the two
splendid entrance portals, one on the main avenue and one on the
side street. The Pasaj is lined with meyhanes, old-fashioned taverns
where one can enjoy a tasty snack washed down with draft beer or
rakı, the anise-flavoured intellect-deadenings national drink. At its
inner end the Pasai opens into Şahne Şokağı, a street that leads from
Istiklal Caddesi down through the Galatasaray Fish Market, one of
the most colourful street-markets in the city.
Returning to Istiklal, we now turn of to the right at Galatasaray
Meydanı and at the end of the first block we turn left on Meşrutiye
Caddesi, passing on our right the old British Embassy. This is a
handsome building in the Italian Renaissance style. It was originally
designed by Sir Charles Barry, architect of the Houses of Parliament.
But it was completed in 1845 by W. S. Smith along somewhat
diferent lines. At the rear of the Embassy there is a magnificent and
very English garden.
We continue along Meşrutiye Caddesi, which at the next corner
turns half-left to bring us to the neighbourhood known as Tepebaşı