History of
“The Galata House – The Old British Jail”
1904-1919 Civil Prison of the British Empire
1919-1923 British military police station during the occupation of Istanbul by the allied forces.
1923-1927 Lodging for the 3rd chancery servant of the British Empire
1927-1933 Lodging for the British Aid Mission member Mrs. Andrews
1933 The British Embassy sold the civil prison to Pierre Fournial for a sum of 425 Eng. Pounds. Mr. Fournial was a local merchant in Galata and he was specialized in machinery for sugar and lumber factories, flour mills, steam engines.
1933-1979 Fournial Family added a bay window to the civil prison and used it as a residence. In 1939 Pierre Fournial passed away.
1957-1960 The only daughter of Pierre Fournial Mercedes Celestine Fournial lived in this house after her marriage.
1960-1973 Mercedes Fournial rented the building to the Austrian Sankt Georg High School for lodging.
1973-1976 Jewelers Edmond and Arman Cendereciyan used the building as an office/atelier.
1976-1979 Metal worker Ohannes Muradyan rented the building to be used as an atelier for metal manufacturing.
1979 Later the lodger Ohannes Muradyan bought the building.
1991 After Ohannes Muradyan died in 1990, architect/planner Nadire & Mete Göktuğ bought the Old British Jail.
1999 It became a restaurant named “Galata Evi-The Galata House”.
2002 Ministry of Tourism gave to the restaurant a -special touristic license- because of its historical importance.
