6 places to spend an afternoon.
Saturday starts in the record arcades off Tunalı Hilmi: KV Records in Ertuğ Pasajı, Shades Records down a flight of stairs in Tunalı Pasajı, selling since 1990. The afternoon goes to the valley at Seğmenler Parkı. After dark you knock the tokmak on the pink block at Siyah Beyaz and wait to be let in.
3 things to do, 3 shops, all in Kavaklıdere.
Kült Kavaklıdere keeps the Kavaklıdere Sineması's wooden ticket booth, ceramic panels and neon at the entrance of the 1965 Başkent Apartmanı, with screenings and concerts back under the same lights. At Siyah Beyaz you knock the tokmak on the pink block at Kavaklıdere No. 3: a bar downstairs since 1984, contemporary shows upstairs. Seğmenler Parkı drops sixty-seven thousand square metres of valley below the presidential retreat.
The Kavaklıdere Sineması's wooden ticket booth, ceramic wall panels and neon still sit at the entrance of the 1965 Başkent Apartmanı, seventeen years of dust wiped off since a collective reopened it in 2023. Screenings, stand-up, concerts and workshops now run under those same lights on Tunalı Hilmi, with the main hall below street level.
Sixty-seven thousand square metres of valley dropping between Atatürk Bulvarı and İran Caddesi, with the presidential retreat looking down from the ridge. Selami Sözer's 1983 design follows the Kavaklıdere stream through the middle, past sculptures and a monument to Ankara's old civilian militia. The amphitheatre once hosted TRT tapings and pop concerts; now it's mostly students and dogs.
Knock the tokmak at Kavaklıdere No. 3 and someone lets you in; there is no bell. Architect Faruk Sade opened the bar in February 1984 to bankroll the gallery upstairs, and his wife Fulya and daughter Sera run both today: blues and rock downstairs, rotating contemporary shows above. A 2010 film carries the venue's name.
Shopping here means vinyl in the arcades off Tunalı Hilmi, then the vintage racks upstairs. Shades Records has been down a flight of stairs in Tunalı Pasajı since 1990, KV Records runs Koray Vergili's stall in Ertuğ Pasajı, and Eskimiyo Vintage sells secondhand clothes inside the Çelikler İş Merkezi at Tunalı Hilmi 91, an office block that has turned into the street's vintage arcade.
Up inside the Çelikler İş Merkezi at Tunalı Hilmi 91, an office block that has quietly become the street's vintage arcade, with Kuzgun and Dedee on other floors. The name is a pun on eskimiyor, never gets old, and the secondhand racks of clothing and accessories back it up. They sell, they do not buy, so leave the bag at home.
Koray Vergili's stall inside Ertuğ Pasajı on Tunalı Hilmi Caddesi, where new and secondhand LPs share the racks. His own collecting started with Elvis Presley, and asking about the King gets you a lecture.
Down a flight of stairs in Tunalı Pasajı, Süleyman Özyıldırım has been selling records since 1990. Vinyl, CDs, cassettes and DVDs lean toward jazz and funk, stacked to the low ceiling. He pours tea and talks music whether you asked or not.
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