From Lev HaYir parking to the Carmel market through Nakhalat Binyamin - the Friday market of handcraft: glass, wood, metal, ceramics. Jewelers and craftsmen, performances of street musicians, restaurants and cafes, children and adults. This partially restored, partially destroyed quarter of the old Tel Aviv has its own atmosphere of a carefree unhurried good neighborhood.
The underground parking in this complex is accessible for both motorcyclists and car-owners. It is also close to the historical center of Tel Aviv, which makes it convenient for travelers. The costs aren’t cheap though, with a high of 90 shekels per 4 hours of parking. Payment can be done both with a card or with cash.
We begin our route at the cross between Gruzenberg St. and Nahalat Benyamin St. Every Friday this cross and the market near “Nahalat Benyamin” become a paradise for street artists and performers. The red building in front of them is a historical hotel called “Nordau”. Unlike other buildings in the city and other cities, this building had one purpose since 1924; it was built as a hotel it is still a hotel today, and all these years only one family owned it.
All of us are already familiar with the regular blacksmithing process, but here, at the market, there are things that might seem new to some of us. The artists use old used tools like spoons and forks to form their pieces of art. Surprisingly, most of the time they succeed and make beautiful and cool works!
This part of Nahalat Benyamin Street Market was founded as another quarter of Tel Aviv aside of Ahuzat Bayit. Here you can see the first sparkles of weird looking buildings. They resulted in a project that consisted of limitless young architects, brought here to build the new quarter of the town.
This house was built by an underrated Russian Israeli architect Yegosha Tabchnik. He wanted to create a unique Jewish style of architecture, but he didn’t get any support from fellow architects. By the mid 20’s he left British Palestine and moved to Brooklyn. This house was built by the order of the Barchat family and sold to this Russian family of dealers. Thanks to this family Nahalat Benyamin became a trade center in time. To this day there is a shop of curtains, famous and thriving through all these years.
this house was built by an underrated Russian Israeli architect by the name Yegosha Tabchnik. He graduated architecture in the Odessa institute for architecture. During his studying, he lived in British Palestine for about a year, and decided to move here. He gained popularity among the architect community fairly quickly, but he wasn’t accepted due to his overly “biblical styled architectural orientation”. Palm trees, Stars of David, and Menorahs were common in his designs, and due to his lack of acceptance here in British Palestine he moved to live the rest of his life in Brooklyn. To this day, his name causes tangling and interest in the Israeli architecture community.
Here is Gershon Cohen on the Square of David’s star, where 6 different streets cross. The Golden building with some pinkish shades was built by the architect Joseph Tischler. Also, Tischler was born in Buchach (Ukraine) just like the famous writer and poet Shay Agnon, one of the most important culture spectators in Israel. Tischler got an education in Vienna, and after his relocation to British Palestine he assembled the central Architectural Comity of Tel Aviv, that later built some other 300 Buildings in Tel Aviv. On top of this building, there’s a sign, showing the name of the owner.
The restaurant was opened in 1997 and remains open all these years, unlike others that were forced to be closed due to a rough reality for these kinds of businesses in Tel Aviv. The owners claim that the restaurant has no secret, it's nothing more than homemade food from freshly bought products purchased here in the market. Moreover, the restaurant’s specialty is both Ashkenazi And Sephardi food, all according to “grandmother’s” recipes.
Coffee of all possible kinds. Anything that can possibly get into your mind. Also, this is already Carmel Market.
The market! This is the right word!
The best street food in the whole wide city. The meals you’ll find here are simple, usual and aren’t very special, but the way the food is done, all the products and the serving are what makes it a sincere pleasure. If you want to try out some real Israeli fast food, this is the place. Aside from the culinary fact, we are now in a historical place. During the British Mandate over Palestine, there was a Jewish underground radio station operating from here. The operators were arrested by the British police in 1946. Between the people who were taken, there was the famous Geula Cohen, a journalist. After the establishment of the Israeli state, she worked as a parliament member.
These are ruins of the house of Zeev Hazin, a Russian seller in Tel Aviv. It was built for him during the 20’s. He was a cement dealer. After him, the residents of this building were Reuven Rubin and his family, who was a famous Israeli artist from Romania. His wedding with an American immigrant Ester Davis was held on the rooftop of this house, in Purim 1930.