Although Shubra is a large city district, the name originally derives from the Coptic word ϭⲱⲡⲣⲟ Šopro, which means a small village, kom (hill), or hamlet, as the area was well known for its rich fields that neighbour the Nile River before it became a part of Cairo.
[6][5] Over the coming decades Mohamed Ali's heirs would turn the area into a garden suburb lining Shubra Street with their palaces.
Shubra lost its upper-class status slowly after the tramway was built in 1902 connecting it to the rest of Cairo, turning into a cosmopolitan working-class and merchant middle-class neighbourhood with numerous cinemas and theatres.
[9] The tram was removed in the 1990s as Cairo Metro Line 2 was being dug,[9] and today the only remaining palatial buildings are the Fountain Pavilion in Shubra El-Kheima, erroneously named Mohamed Ali's Palace,[6] and prince Omar Tousson's palace that was converted into a public school in the 1950s, then later abandoned and is now in the Rod al-Farag district.
Sard is housed in the family apartment of founder Mina Ibrahim, an anthropology researcher from Shubra,[11] and registered with the Egyptian Ministry of Internal Trade.