Deichstraße

The Deichstraße is the oldest surviving street in Hamburg's Altstadt and a rare window into the city as it looked before the industrial age. Along the Nikolaifleet, one of the old canals that once carried cargo into the heart of town, stands a row of restored merchant and burgher houses from the 17th to the 19th century. Their gables face the water: the street side was the front door, the canal side held the counting rooms and the storage lofts where goods were hoisted up. That layout shows how Hamburg's merchant families lived and worked in the centuries before the Speicherstadt warehouses took the job over. The street carries a second piece of history as well. The Great Fire of 1842, which destroyed a large part of the inner city, broke out here. Today the lane is short, quiet and photogenic: half-timbering and brick reflected in the canal, with a handful of small restaurants and long-established Hamburg taverns at street level. Look along the water and the tower of the Mahnmal St. Nikolai, the bombed church kept as an anti-war memorial, rises over the rooftops. Getting there: U3 to Rödingsmarkt, then a few minutes on foot. Coming from the Rathausmarkt, cross the Trostbrücke and head toward the water. Fifteen minutes is enough to walk the street, but it pairs naturally with the Nikolai memorial and the Speicherstadt just beyond.