Fabrika and the Marjanishvili District

Fabrika is where Tbilisi learned what to do with a Soviet building. The sewing factory on Egnate Ninoshvili Street was converted in 2016: a hostel and co-working floors went into the block, and the central yard was opened up with bars, cafes, workshops and small independent shops.

Walking into the yard is free, and that matters. There are few places in Tbilisi where you can simply sit for an hour without buying anything. By day it is calm and full of laptops; by evening it fills up and gets loud, and after two in the morning the neighbours are not enthusiastic.

Around it lies Chughureti, a district founded in 1817 by German colonists and long known as New Tiflis. Its regular grid of streets dates from that settlement, which is why this part of the left bank looks nothing like the old town.

Within a few minutes' walk:

• Marjanishvili Square and the Kote Marjanishvili Drama Theatre, working in Tbilisi since 1930

• the restored stretch of Agmashenebeli Avenue between Marjanishvili and Saarbrücken squares, where nineteenth-century facades were renovated in 2016

• Saarbrücken Bridge, named for the twin city, with a good view along the river

The honest note is that the restoration stopped at the facades. One block back, houses are still held up by timber props and the courtyards are in poor shape. That contrast is much of what makes the district interesting: it has not been tidied into a set.

Fabrika started a wave: since 2016 several other Soviet factories and warehouses in Tbilisi have been converted the same way. Still, the best part of the district is what was here before Fabrika arrived — the small canteens of Chughureti, the khinkali houses, and the bakeries where tonis puri comes out of the clay oven three times a day. After eight in the evening these streets are livelier than the centre, and noticeably cheaper.