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Fifty years ago, Suleyman Pasha Street was lined with trees and sidewalk cafes, a gracious ornament to the Europeanized city centre built in the late nineteenth century. Since being renamed Sharia Talaat Harb , the street's once elegant facades have been effaced by grime and neglect, tacky billboards and glitzy facings - yet its vitality and diversity have never been greater. Overflowing the pavements, thousands of Cairenes window-shop, pop into juice bars and surge out of cinemas. Imelda Marcos would drool over the profusion of shoe shops, some devoted to butterfly creations fit only for a boudoir. In the shadows of Western-style affluence, beggars lie with palms outstretched and barefoot urchins hump garbage pails onto donkey carts - an accepted part of Cairo's streetlife. Almost every tourist seeks a break from the crowds and culture shock at one of three places along the initial stretch of Talaat Harb. Felfela's Restaurant , just around the corner of Hoda Shaarawi, is followed shortly by the Cafe Riche , where the Free Officers supposedly plotted their overthrow of Egypt's monarchy; another version maintains that they communicated over the telephone in Groppi's , a famous coffee house on Midan Talaat Harb , the intersection with Qasr el-Nil. Here stands a statue of Talaat Harb (1876-1941), nationalist lawyer and founder of the National Bank. Up to this point traffic runs both ways, but thereafter northbound vehicles are restricted to Qasr el-Nil; because the streets cross over, it's easy to take the wrong one by mistake if you're on foot. Between Midan Talaat Harb and 26th July Street, Talaat Harb abounds in takeaways, cinemas and cheap hotels .
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