Reeperbahn

Hamburg's Reeperbahn is a roughly 930-metre entertainment strip in the St. Pauli district, its name rooted in the rope-makers who once twisted rigging here for harbour vessels. The street's place in pop history was sealed in the early 1960s when the Beatles played hundreds of nights at the Indra and the Star-Club, honing their live act before fame found them — a bronze monument on Spielbudenplatz now marks the connection. Today the street layers its maritime past with the red-light district around the Herbertstrasse, the Schmidts Tivoli variety theatre, and a dense run of nightclubs and late-night food stalls. On weekend nights the strip draws a thick current of club-goers, tourists, and long-time Kiez regulars that flows well into the early morning hours.

St. Pauli's main strip of clubs, bars and theatres — once Beatles territory, now a festival route.