BRITISH SEAMEN'S HOSPITAL AND BRITISH POST OFFICE GALATA, ISTANBUL
BRITISH SEAMEN'S HOSPITAL
The British Hospital from a post card 1895
A 1896 wood cut view from the ‘Graphic’ an illustrated magazine (p.48, Jan 21), showing a traditional Christmas dinner scene.
Both Photos courtesy of levantineheritage.com
The British Seamen's Hospital in Galata, Istanbul was opened for the first time during the Crimean War in1855, to take care of the injured British seamen. In 1904 British architect Percy Adams designed a new building to replace the old one. The massive five story building was thin in the middle, but extending horizontally to the sides on an angle, like the wings of a bird in a "L" shape. The first two stories had long marble balconies, on the fourth floor a covered rooftop as the fifth story, six mini towers and a big watch tower on top of the middle section making the sixth story. The elegant entrance had white mosaic floors with black designs and the date the hospital was built, marble staircases, and an iron gate bearing the initials of the hospital BSH.
Until 1924 the hospital was under the control of the British Embassy. The income for the hospital was derived from the tolls of British flagged ships entering the Galataport. These tolls, calculated depending on the tonnage of the vessels, once were only taken from English ships, but later with the admission of seamen from Swedish and Norwegian ships, a new resource of income was developed for the hospital. After World War I, during the four years of British occupation of Istanbul, all British ships sailing to Istanbul were watched from the Hospital’s watch tower. During this time the British naval flag flew on the Seamen's hospital at almost the same prominence as the Turkish flag on the Galata Tower.
A postcard view of the rooftops of Galata early 20th century, showing the British naval flag flying on the Seaman’s hospital at almost the same prominence as the Turkish flag on Galata tower.Photo:levantineheritage.com
Time Ball in Greenwich, London and Galata Tower, Istanbul
According to the decision made at the 1913 International Clock Congress held in Vienna, it was decided to bring a timeball from London to announce the Greenwich clock time to Istanbul, with the help of the signals coming from the Eiffel tower. When the time ball fell down at 12:00 am, a whistle siren would signal to the citizens to adjust their time. On February 15, 1914 Ottoman cabinet members decided to pay the cost of 1000 liras of the time ball by the Ottoman Ministry of Navy’s funds. It was first decided to place the time ball on the top of the Galata Tower, but the decision was reversed and it was placed in the Seamen’s Hospital building’s tower and activated in May of 1915.
After the Lausanne Peace Treaty on July 24, 1923, the Entente forces including British forces began to leave Istanbul on August 23, 1923. The last Entente unit left the city on October 4, 1923. After the proclamation of the Turkish Republic the Seamen’s Hospital was transferred to the Turkish Red Crescent in 1924.
The time globe at the seamen’s hospital was frequently malfunctioning and creating confusion whether clocks should be adjusted at the beginning of the whistle or after. To have better control, it was transferred to Galata Tower in 1930. Since it is not at the Galata Tower today, nobody knows when it was dismantled and where it is today.
In 1933, the Red Crescent transferred the building to the Istanbul Municipality.The building was used as a rabies Hospital between 1937 and 1948. Between 1948 and 1993, it served as Beyoğlu Municipal Hospital. It was the first municipal hospital in Istanbul. In 1993, it became the Prof. Dr. Reşat Belger State Eye Hospital under the Turkish Ministry of Health. Today it still serves as the Eye Hospital .
The British Hospital Building today by the Galata Bridge. View from Galata Tower. With tip of Berekezede Mosque's minaret, St George Hospital across the British Hospital and St Georg H.S. on right behind tree
Turkish Ministery of Health Eye Hospital 2024
THE BRITISH POST OFFICE
British Hospital from a Photograph drawing 1895
From an earlier period, another indication of the importance Constantinople gained with the Crimean war, an etching view of the interior of the British army post-office, probably also situated in Galata (from the Illustrated London News, 19 Jan 1856).
Another British building only a few yards away from the Seamen’s hospital on the hill climbing to Galata Tower is the old British Post Office situated next to Bereketzade Ali Efendi Mosque. The Post Office was founded by the British for military correspondence during the Crimean war, which lasted between 1853 and 1856. After the war the post office continued to function for civilian correspondence. With the increasing volume of business it was decided by the British Ministry of Post Office to have a new and bigger building to be built. The building which still exists today was designed by architect Joseph Nadin and opened in 1859. Between 1859 to 1895 the building functioned as the British Post Office until it was shut down and moved to another building in the Karaköy area of Galata. In 1905 the abandoned building was put to use as the British Boys High School and functioned until 1912 in that capacity. When the Boys High School moved to Teşvikiye to a bigger building, it once again became an abandoned building.
There is no information about what happened to the building between 1912 and 1949. In 1949 two businessmen from the Jewish community bought the building, to use the upper floors as a private residence and the first floor as a workshop. For the next fifty years until the late 1990s, the building was going to change ownership as well as function several times. It was usually used as a carpentry or other type of workshop.
Renovated Postane today.
The Agricultural Natural Foods terrace of Postane. Eye Hospital's tower and tip of Berekzade Ali Efendi Mosques minaret in the back ground.
Photos by dacistanbul.com
From the new millennium on, while the building kept changing ownership and tenants; like movie production firms, the building underwent several renovation and reconstruction projects. The latest renovation project which had started in 2020 lasted four years and the building opened its doors to the public with the name “Postane” in October of this year. Although the name Postane (Post Office) refers to the old function of the structure, in the new project the structure does not have a single function, but rather a very flexible program. Postane focuses on the idea of co-production that can accommodate many functions, like its visitors' social, environmental and urban impact-oriented co-production area.
The building includes a kitchen, a cafeteria, a shop, working and meeting areas, a specialty library, a terrace for production, a podcast and video studio for storytellers, and a multi-purpose hall for public events. The library offers impressive content with its archive of 3000 books and journals. While the first floor is free to the public, the upper floors require membership.
The agricultural terrace of the building is used to grow natural food. The water needs of the agricultural garden are met by accumulated rainwater. The waste of the building is used on the terrace with the compost system. The plant beds are covered with parquet removed from the old structure. The social initiative here is to create an area where everyone can come and grow their own food on a city scale.
The design team of Postane consisted of Merve Bedir, Eren Onur, Çiğdem Furtuna, Öncül Kırlangıç, Buşra Tunç, and Jorela Karriqi, who all worked on the re-functioning of the building.
