Józsefváros / Nyócker - the VIIIth district of Budapest

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About Józsefváros / Nyócker - the VIIIth district of Budapest

Józsefváros, the eighth district of Budapest (nyolcadik kerület in Hungarian, hence the district's nickname nyócker) was summed up as follows in a Hungarian Quarterly review of "Nyócker," the movie:

"This central city quarter emerged in the 19th century when new immigrants came to the rapidly developing city, and was inhabited by workers, by the poor and by the dubious. Its bad reputation goes back many years and, until only recently, it was the centre for cheap streetwalkers.

The image of Józsefváros (Josephstadt - Joseph's City) - a construct of facts, actual conditions, prejudices and city legends - still has a hold on the popular imagination, best expressed by the laconic wording in Apartments Wanted small-ads: "8th district out of the question!" This is the ghetto, the jungle, Budapest's Gypsy row, the hotbed of crime, where you'd do best not to go out in broad daylight, let alone after dark. Where anything can happen, from mafia showdowns to shoot-outs, to bombs, to knives flying through the air.

Of course, this image, which the popular press, movies and rap lyrics constantly reinforce, doesn't live up to the reality; all that is true in the image is that here flats are relatively cheap and the environment is traditionally more accommodating to newcomers. For that reason many Roma, especially musicians, live here, and, more recently, an increasing number of Chinese and Middle Eastern immigrants have arrived. Józsefváros may be a bit dirtier, noisier and more run-down than other Budapest districts, but public security is no worse here than anywhere else.

But who cares about prosaic reality once you've got living full-blooded urban folk-poetry, a modern mythology deeply rooted in the collective consciousness (and subconscious), and a cavalcade of colourful figures [..]?"