Downtown Cairo

Yet decades of neglect by the neighbourhood's landlords and tenants following the burning of most of Cairo's buildings during the popular Cairo fire incident prior to the 1952 Revolution led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the ensuing departure of the upper classes, have left the splendor of its ornate edifices mired in decay.

Lax enforcement of laws and regulations gave way to the entry of commercial establishments into the neighborhood, mostly with no regard to maintaining aesthetic harmony or preserving the historic buildings of Downtown Cairo.

One of Wust al-Balad's main streets, lined with vintage architecture from the late 19th and early 20th century European Beaux-Arts and Egyptian—Islamic—Moorish Revival styles.

It is said to be where King Farouk saw his second wife,[5] Nariman Sadek; where the perpetrator of the 1919 failed assassination attempt on Egypt's last Christian Prime Minister, Youssef Wahba Pasha lay in wait for his target;[5] and where several members of the resistance during the 1919 revolution met in the basement to organize their activities and print their flyers.

Patrons included Egyptian Nobel Prize winner and nationalist novelist Naguib Mahfouz and the then-future president Gamal Abdel Nasser.