Rahmi M Koç Industrial Museum

Hasköy, located on the Beyoğlu side of the Golden Horn, was for centuries a small, predominantly Jewish, village. In the Ottoman period it also became home to a naval shipyard and a sultan’s hunting ground. Today, its main claim to fame is this splendid museum dedicated to the history of transport, industry and communications in Turkey. Founded by the head of the Koç industrial group, one of Turkey’s most prominent conglomerates, it exhibits artefacts from İstanbul’s industrial past. The collection is highly eclectic, giving the impression of being a grab-bag of cool stuff collected over the decades or donated to the museum by individuals, organisations or companies who didn’t know what else to do with it. This might sound like we’re damning the place with faint praise, but this is far from the case – in fact, we highly recommend a visit here, particularly if you are travelling with children. The museum is in two parts: a new building on the Golden Horn side of the road and a superbly restored and converted Byzantine stone building opposite. Exhibits are largely concerned with forms of transport: Bosphorus ferry parts and machinery; a horse-drawn tram; an Amphicar (half car, half boat) that crossed the English Channel in 1962; Sultan Abdül Aziz’s ornate railway coach with its duck-egg-blue stain upholstery; cars (everything from ugly Turkish Anadol models to fabulous pink Cadillacs); a 1960 Messerschmitt; and the fuselage of ‘Hadley’s Harem’, a US B-24D Liberator bomber that crashed off Antalya in August 1943. There’s even a working railway that takes visitors on a short trip in a period carriage behind a 1960s Ruston and Hornsby diesel locomotive or a 1970s Baguley-Drewy every hour on Saturday and Sunday. Other exhibits look at how appliances and electronic devices work – the exhibition of how whitegoods work is particularly fascinating. Wheelchair access is offered throughout the complex. What’s more, excellent interpretive panels in Turkish and English are provided. There are buttons galore to push, a lovely cafe right on the water, a convivial bar and an upmarket French brasserie. The submarine exhibit, from which children under eight years of age are barred, requires an extra ticket. The museum is near the northern end of the old Galata Bridge (near where Hasköy Caddesi changes into Kumbarahane Caddesi). The Haliç ferry from Eminönü stops right next to the museum.