The coastal length of Bakırköy is 13 km, with small cliffs in Yeşilköy and Yeşilyurt neighborhoods and a sandy beach in Florya.

Since these green areas are not cemeteries but roads, streets and large parks or urban forests, Bakırköy presents a greener appearance compared to the Istanbul average.

[10] The imperial court came often to the Hebdomon to attend military parades, to welcome the Emperor coming back from campaign, or to pray in the large church of St. John Baptist the Forerunner.

[11] In 1925 the ancient denomination was changed to Bakırköy ("Copper Village") by a law suppressing place names of non-Turkish derivation.

There is little remaining of historical significance in the area: what there is includes a cistern (Fildamı Sarnıcı),[13] a powder house from the 17th century (today used as Yunus Emre Kültür Merkezi in Ataköy), the Greek Orthodox church of Saint George (consecrated on May 2, 1832) and a Greek school, the central mosque and fountain of 1875, an Armenian Church and school and the resting place of the Muslim saint Zuhurat Baba, a Turkish soldier who died during the conquest of Constantinople.

The seafront is now a popular location for tea gardens, clubs and restaurants, (although the beaches have been unusable for decades).

As a result of this rapid growth, in the 1950s, rural settlements such as Güngören, Kocasinan and Sefaköy quickly turned into slums with title deeds.

However, Küçükçekmece was the first settlement within the borders of Bakırköy district that showed rapid development and became a separate municipality in 1956.

Bakırköy became a popular residential area in the late 19th century after the construction of a railroad connection to İstanbul and until the 1970s was one of the most relaxed and desirable locations in the city.

Bakırköy is easy to reach by public transport; there are minibuses (Turkish:Dolmuş) to Beyoğlu throughout the night; there are buses to Mecidiyeköy (although using the D.100 highway by bus is unpleasant indeed: there is a ferry boat service that takes passengers to Kadıköy and Bostancı on the Asian side of the city and also to the Adalar (Islands); and the light-railway from the airport to Aksaray runs through here.