Dereboyu Avenue

Dereboyu Avenue (Turkish: Dereboyu Caddesi), also known simply as Dereboyu and officially as Mehmet Akif Avenue (Turkish: Mehmet Akif Caddesi), is the busiest avenue in North Nicosia, as well as its centre of entertainment. The region of Dereboyu is also understood as extending to the neighbouring Osman Paşa Avenue.

The avenue extends into the Green Line, and the part of it under Turkish Cypriot control has a length of 1,600 metres, with two lanes. The Nicosia Marathon's route passes through the avenue. The avenue hosts bars and restaurants, as well as occasional shopping festivals and concerts and the annual Nicosia Carnival. It is also used as a site for protests.

It was known as "Shakespeare Avenue" during British rule. Older generations referred to the avenue as "Mehmet Akif Avenue", but to describe it, the phrase "dere boyundaki cadde" ("the avenue along the river") was used as it lies along the Pedieos River. The British administration built an elevated road, named "Irish Bridge", from the avenue across the river, but the road was flooded during winter. The Cyprus Government Railway track from Morphou to Nicosia passed through the avenue. The area was known as "Tabakhane" ("tannery") or "Tabana" in the first half of the century as the tannery was located in the avenue, next to the river where a plantation now exists, having been moved there from the Tabakhane quarter of the walled city in the 19th century by the British administration. Haşmet Muzaffer Gürkan described a "pervading foul odor" in the avenue, where there were "no signs of life" apart from a few dairy farms and the tannery before the 1950s. In 1953, as the Köşklüçiftlik quarter expanded into the avenue and the first houses were built, the tannery was moved to a village. The railway track was also dismantled in 1952, leaving behind a steel bridge and a long strip of land that was then converted to a park.

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Wikipedia