The closure of the station has been very controversial and a group known as the Haydarpaşa Solidarity Group (Turkish: Haydarpaşa Dayanışması) has staged regular protest sit-ins in front of it[1] amid fears that the station and port would be sold; a plan involving seven skyscrapers provoked especially strong adverse reaction.

Its foundation is based on 1100 wooden piles, each 21 metres (69 ft) long, driven into the soft shore by a steam hammer.

In 1917 the architect Vedat Tek designed the pretty terminal decorated with Kütahya tiles where ferries used to deposit would-be train passengers in front of the station.

[10] In 1927 the CIWL started a premier train service, the all-sleeper Anatolian Express, that travelled daily between Haydarpaşa and Ankara.

[14] In 2011 the World Monuments Fund, the New York-based heritage preservation organisation, placed the railway terminal on its 2012 Watch, drawing attention to its uncertain future.

[15] In November 2012 the station hosted a three-day art exhibition entitled Haydarpasa: Past, Present and Uncertain Future, which was organised in collaboration with the WMF, and featured Canadian and Turkish artists and photographers seeking to raise international interest in preserving the station as a transportation hub.

[16] Although work on the Marmaray has now been completed along with high-speed train services to Ankara, Konya and Eskişehir, these now leave from stations other than Haydarpaşa which remained closed and under restoration in 2022.

[18] A podium made of sheared rectangular blocks found between the railway platforms is believed to date back to the Hellenistic era.

The north-west wing of the 19th-century Selimiye Barracks was transformed into a military hospital during the Crimean War and became the place where the nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale cared for wounded and infected British soldiers.