Powiśle Walking Tour � � � � � � � � �

Powiśle: Warsaw’s Riverside Hot Spot

A former ticket office turned iconic bar - Warszawa Powiśle!. | Photo: Emilia Niedzwiedzka, unsplash

It might seem like quite a stretch to refer to any part of Warsaw as a hot spot, but the city’s riverside Powiśle district has been blipping on the radar for quite some time, however, in more recent years it’s gone through quite a rapid transformation which hasn’t gone unnoticed by eager travel writers searching for the next best urban gem! The Powiśle of today is a far cry from what it once was - a fairly mundane area nestled between the Royal Route and the Vistula River, full of apartment blocks, factories/warehouses and workshops (often dilapidated), avoided by locals as there was simply nothing interesting to see or do here that warranted rolling down the hill to explore� Fast-forward to today and this is one of the most intriguing parts of Warsaw, containing some fantastic museums, the modernised riverside boulevards, a revamped power station (we’ll get to that later), photo-friendly uni gardens, an iconic train station bar (what?) unique shops, and of course, a gastro and social scene hotbed!

It’s time for an explanation for this mish-mash through a brief history lesson (don’t yawn, it’s worth it!)� Warsaw University got the ball rolling by relocating its library to its current location on ul. Dobra 56/66 in 1999 and subsequently adding the now popular gardens (including rooftop garden with viewing platform) in 2002� The intelligentsia had officially moved in� But still Powiśle was still seen as an area of little interest, the most interesting point being the left-bank riverside boulevards, which were merely cracked concrete slabs covered in weeds, the remnants of a pre-war effort to build a promenade, and subsequently became a favourite haunt of local drunks� Oh, dear� But once city centre rents began sky rocketing, the vanquished found their new home here� Local artists, small cafe and restaurant owners, shop owners, even activists, looking for a near-thecentre area to relocate saw the potential in the leafy riverside district�

And so things plodded along for a while, the blips on the radar getting louder with some outstanding gastro venues and nightlife spots popping up; one of the most iconic bars in Warsaw opened here in 2009, the former ticket office of the still functioning train station Warszawa Powiśle - the distinctive modernist shape and its more than Spartan approach to drink/ food struck a chord with locals and its popularity continues to this day� And then exciting new plans to build the Copernicus Science Center were announced, resulting in an official opening in 2010�