North Beach (San Francisco, California) | neighbourhood

 neighbourhood, draw only border

North Beach’s colorful past encompasses Little Italy, the Barbary Coast and the Bohemian/Beatnik tradition. North Beach has the unhurried feeling of a village with all the amenities of an exciting big city. Generally regarded one of the country’s top urban neighborhoods, North Beach is referred to as the heart and soul of San Francisco. Named for a beach that became landfill in the 1800s, North Beach is nestled in an urban valley between Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill.

At the center of North Beach, the graceful Romanesque Saints Peter & Paul Church (known as the Italian Cathedral) rises above the green expanse of Washington Square, recently voted one of America’s greatest public places. This piazza is where festivals, rallies, art exhibits, impromptu picnics and lovers’ trysts take place year round.

Even though immigration from Italy peaked in 1913 and many North Beach Italians moved to outlying San Francisco neighborhoods and suburbs, the district maintains a distinctly Italian flavor.

North Beach has it all: romantic cable cars; Lombard Street (the “world’s crookedest” street); Coit Tower; landmark buildings; the challenging steep slopes of Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill; fantastic bay and city views; an outstanding, international selection of restaurants and caffes, clubs and saloons with live music, poetry readings and caffe opera; excellent small theaters and a diverse cluster of retail shops. Our cornerstones are the San Francisco Art Institute, City Lights Bookstore, and the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, the City’s oldest parish church established during the Gold Rush.

North Beach’s famous streets each have unique identities. Today (Upper) Grant Avenue, formerly the heart of the Beats’ hangouts, is a four block stretch of contemporary fashion boutiques, bohemian enclaves and cafes. Neon clad Broadway, where Topless began in 1964, remains focused on adult entertainment, strip clubs and great restaurants. Caffeine filled Columbus Avenue is one of America’s great boulevards with views of the Transamerica Pyramid to the south and Mount Tamalpais in distant Marin to the north.

In North Beach not only do you hear Italian, Chinese, Farsi, Arabic, French and Spanish, you also hear bellowing, reassuring fog horns and barking sea lions from the nearby bay, as well as the incessant noisy chatter of wild parrots that have chosen to reside here.