Tallinn's slums - Kassisaba, Kelmiküla, Uus-Maailm!

In many people's minds, Kopli is associated with slums, but 100 years earlier that role belonged to Kassisaba, Kelmiküla, and Uus-Maailm. Today these are city centre subdistricts, but when the Baltic Railway was completed in 1870, it was built with a wide curve around Tallinn's built-up area. And as we all know, the areas along the railway attract all sorts of shady characters! On this tour we'll search for that century-old slum romance.

We'll explore the origins of the quirky neighborhood names and the fights between local guys' crews that were a part of slum life. Of course, we will also seek out the area's most iconic objects, such as the Wismari Hospital and sobering-up station, the school building from "Wikman Boys", and the mysterious radio signal jamming station. We'll also pass by the America tavern building, which gave its name to both the neighborhood and its streets, and the Railway Technical School, whose exterior you can still admire for its original Baltic Station building's beauty. However, we'll also encounter some more vulgar things: Tallinn's medieval breaking wheel site and Tallinn's oldest operating sex shop.

Please note that on this tour, we also pass by the Estonian Internal Security Service building - don't tell your secrets too loudly here!