Haight-Ashbury San Francisco: Summer of Love Legacy

Haight-Ashbury is San Francisco's most mythologized neighbourhood — the epicentre of the 1967 Summer of Love where the counterculture movement that would reshape American society gathered in unprecedented numbers and the psychedelic rock that became the soundtrack of a generation was born in the Victorian houses along these streets. The neighbourhood today carries its history with a mixture of commercial nostalgia and genuine alternative culture: vintage clothing shops, independent record stores, and head shops that seem to have survived from the 1960s themselves stand alongside the inevitable tourist merchandise of a neighbourhood that has been a pilgrimage destination for fifty years.

The residential streets of the Lower Haight and the Upper Haight contain some of San Francisco's finest Victorian architecture — the neighbourhood's painted ladies were spared the earthquake and fire of 1906 and survive in various states of colourful restoration that make walking the streets a pleasure of architectural appreciation. Buena Vista Park on the neighbourhood's south side offers panoramic views of the city and bay from a wooded hilltop that feels entirely wild despite being surrounded by dense urban development. The park's trails are popular with dog walkers and morning joggers from the surrounding Victorian houses.

The music heritage of Haight-Ashbury remains tangible: the house at 710 Ashbury Street where the Grateful Dead lived communally during the Summer of Love still stands, and plaques and murals throughout the neighbourhood reference Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and the venues where psychedelic rock was invented. Amoeba Music on Haight Street is the finest independent record store in America — a vast converted bowling alley selling new and used vinyl, CDs, and music memorabilia to serious collectors and casual browsers who spend hours in its aisles. The neighbourhood's restaurants and cafes range from decades-old cheap eats institutions to natural wine bars and farm-to-table restaurants that reflect the neighbourhood's ongoing relevance to San Francisco's food culture.