Until the 1620s Hamburg's ropewalks had been located in the Neustadt (New Town) quarter of the inner city close to the Elbe, which then became a densely built up area.

A famous landmark is the Davidwache, a police station located on the South side of the Reeperbahn at the cross street Davidstraße.

The Herbertstraße, a short side street off the Davidstraße, has sex workers displaying themselves behind windows, waiting for customers.

The Große Freiheit ("Great Freedom") is a street starting on the North Side with several bars, clubs and a Catholic church.

[6][7] At a major trial during 2006 and 2007 ten members of the "Marek Gang", which controls brothels on and near the Reeperbahn, were charged with pimping.

Several older residents blamed the decline of the Reeperbahn's sex industry on the rise of discotheques and cheap bars that attract teenage customers.

[12] To mark the historical importance of their time in Hamburg, a Beatles-Platz was built at the cross of Reeperbahn and Große Freiheit.

The heavy metal band Blue Cheer have a song called "Sweet Child of the Reeperbahn" on their 1991 album Dining with the Sharks.

The punk band The Toy Dolls have a song titled "Caught up the Reeperbahn", first released on their 1993 album Absurd-Ditties.

"Reeperbahn" is the name of a track from the Christian rock group Model Engine's CD The Lean Years Tradition.

Dutch DJ and producer Nicky Romero had the music video for his song "Toulouse" shot in Hamburg, Germany.

Australian pop-punk band the Hard-Ons have a song called "Don't Fear The Reeperbahn" on their 2007 album Most People Are Nicer Than Us.

London based indie band Spector have a bonus track titled "Reeperbahn" on the deluxe version of their 2015 album Moth Boys.

UK based folk rock band Skinny Lister wrote a song titled "Hamburg Drunk", which depicts a rough night "falling and sprawlling down the old Reeperbahn" on their 2016 album The Devil, The Heart and the Fight.