From Hallidie Plaza to the waterfront, Market Street traces the southern edge of the FINANCIAL DISTRICT, San Francisco’s patch of banks and other trade-related businesses, which hold court in buildings that consitute a veritable hodgepodge of architectural styles and periods, from Palladian piles to postmodern redoubts. Scattered between the investment companies are the copy centers and computer boutiques that serve the offices above, with an occasional restaurant of note, usually set up in alleyways, like those tucked off the corner of Kearney and Pine streets. San Francisco’s movers and shakers distinguish themselves from the rest of the American financial community on the last business day of the year, when local custom dictates that office workers throw their desk calendar pages out of the window. Standing on the street and looking skywards, the scene is reminiscent of a ticker-tape parade – not to be missed if you’re in town for Christmas and New Year. On Friday evenings year round, the bars buzz with relieved workers, but after 7pm and on weekends, the Financial District is nearly deserted.



Predictably, the district’s sights are themed around money. For a hands-on grasp of modern finance, the World of Economics Gallery in the Federal Reserve Bank, 101 Market St (Mon–Fri 9am–6pm), is unbeatable: computer games allow you to engineer your own inflationary disasters, while exhibits detail recent scandals and triumphs. Outside the bank is the starting point of the California Street cable-car line, which leads you out of the Financial District, past Chinatown and up to Nob Hill, though it is a more thrilling ride back down, swooping from quiet mansions into a sea of bustling high-rises.

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