This “Lister Mile” connects the main railroad station with Lister Platz, which is in fact exactly one mile (1.6 kilometers) to the north in the most densely populated district of Hannover, Germany.

This used to be an extremely car-infested street, but when the subway was built in the 1970s they took the opportunity to rearrange the street, banning cars from over half the length and calming car traffic on the rest.

There was some resistance to this at first, for instance from local merchants who thought their customers came in cars, but it turned out that getting rid of the cars was the key to success. Since then, the Lister Mile has become one of the most popular shopping streets in Hannover. Walking there now, you might wonder where there used to be any space for cars, since now the entire width of the street is full of pedestrians and bicycles.

Walking their bikes at Lister Platz

Lister Tower

This little tower at the edge of the woods is the site of a popular beer garden and also houses a city youth center.

The tower was originally built in the 14^th century as part of the city fortifications, but the adjoining building dates from the 1890s. Since the building was not damaged in the Second World War, it was used for a while to house the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media (but before the word Media was added to the name and before the school even had the status of a university).

My photos in this post are from 2011. I revised the text in 2021.

See more posts on Hannover, Germany.