Region in focus: Longing for the elegant past of Alexandria’s Fouad Street

• 

• 

  A 1955 Ford standard Bird and a 1968 Mercedes are worked on at a car repair shop, which used to service the monarch's vehicles.

• 

  The owner of an antique shop is seen reflected in a mirror at his store on Fouad street.

• 

  A man sits in front of an old building next to a shop that is being renovated.

• 

  An owner of an antiques shop sits at his store in Fouad street in Alexandria.

• 

  In Egypt's Alexandria, Fouad Street reflects the city's rich history and is known for its elegant villas and antique shops. Today the Mediterranean coastal city, once a melting pot of nationalities and faith groups, is overcrowded and dilapidated, like many of Egypt's urban centres.

• 

  A worker arranges flowers inside the oldest florist on Fouad street.

• 

  Nubar Ghazarian helps customers at the family's shoe shop.

• 

  Pictures of King Farouk, son of King Fouad of Egypt (L), and Queen Farida, the first wife of King Farouk (R) hang on a wall at an educational centre in an old building on Fouad street.

• 

  A man walks past classical Greek style columns as he leaves Alexandria Opera House towards Fouad street.

• 

  A statue of Alexander the Great, founder of Alexandria, stands in a square in one end of the Fouad street in Alexandria, Egypt.

• 

  A woman gets into a yellow and black cab in front of L-Passage food hall on Fouad street in Alexandria.

• 

  Alexandria's opera house stands in Fouad street, Egypt.

• 

Named after King Fouad I, who died in 1936, the street is a throwback to a time when the arts flourished in a cosmopolitan city that is now overcrowded and dilapidated like many of Egypt’s urban centers.

Some, like architect and urban planning teacher Ahmed Hassan, are pushing to preserve some relics of the bygone era while keeping pace with growing businesses - the goal of his “Save Alex” initiative, launched in 2012. “We aim to try to find a balance between civil society and profit-driven private sector to protect the heritage buildings from getting demolished,” said Hassan. “We want a system where all stake holders agree on a system to keep the heritage.”

In the past, the city founded by Alexander the Great and once considered the jewel of the Mediterranean, featured a fusion of communities - Greek, Italians, Armenians, Muslims, Christians and Jews. Fouad Street is the most potent symbol of Alexandria’s grand history, with its elegant villas and antique shops. At a car repair shop once used to service the monarch’s vehicles, for example, mechanics work over cars from the 1930s and 1960s.

COSMOPOLITAN PAST

Fouad is one of the oldest streets in Alexandria, featuring landmarks such as a center that used to house the Mohamed Ali club - named for a past king - built near the British forces base in Alexandria during late 19th century.

On the other end of the long street is a statue of Alexander the Great, a present from the Greek government on the occasion of the opening of Bibliotheca Alexandria library and cultural center.

British novelist and travel writer Laurence Durrell, author of The Alexandria Quartet, lived on the street, as did Greek poet Constantine Cavafy.

After the Free Officers toppled the monarchy in 1952, multicultural communities that helped turn Alexandria into a modern city began fleeing, and the aristocracy had no place in the city among widespread nationalizations.

Some long for the old days.

Zahraa Awad, who gives special tours of Fouad street, recalls listening to her grandmother’s stories about the Greek, Italian, French, Armenian, Jewish families who owned the Belle époque villas along Fouad street. “I remember all the names, they represented the cosmopolitan atmospheres of Alexandria,” she said.

“And in the evening when there’s not much cars, you can always hear the piano coming out of the music school of the Conservatoire.”

* Reuters