Hasköy means "imperial village" in Turkish, a reference to the pavilions and gardens belonging to the Ottoman sultan and his court that once lined the shore here.

The Golden Horn ferry has a stop at Hasköy which links the district to Üsküdar, Karaköy, Kasımpaşa, Fener, Balat, Ayvansaray, Eyüp and Sütlüce.

Formerly known as Picridion, In the late fifteenth century, Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal took refuge in the Ottoman Empire and many of them settled in Hasköy.

In the late sixteenth century, the Jewish community of Eminönü, displaced by the construction of the New Mosque (Yeni Cami), also moved to Hasköy.

[2] The main local attractions open to the public are the Aynalıkavak Palace, the last remant of the old Ottoman Tersane (Shipyard) Palace, and the Rahmi M. Koç Museum, Turkey's first industrial museum housing an impressive on the history of transport, partially housed in a disused 19th-century shipyard and partially in a stone-built factory that used to manufacture anchors.