North, Philadelphia: neighborhood guide

North Philadelphia covers a wide band north of Center City, and it is not one place. The southern edge — Fairmount, Spring Garden, Northern Liberties and Fishtown — is rowhouse Philadelphia that has filled in with bars, galleries, restaurants and new apartments. The Art Museum area around Fairmount Avenue holds the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library, the Franklin Institute and Eastern State Penitentiary, with Kelly Drive and Boathouse Row starting just behind the museum.

Northern Liberties, called NoLib locally, runs about Front Street to 6th Street and Spring Garden Street to Girard Avenue. It was the city's brewery district until the 1960s and is now a dense strip of bars and restaurants within walking distance of each other. Fishtown, once part of Kensington, sits further east along Girard Avenue with live music rooms, galleries and Palmer Park.

Further north, Temple University's campus sits about a mile north of City Hall, with the Cecil B. Moore subway stop as the usual access point. Beyond that, the blocks known as North Central hold some of the city's most interesting residential architecture but also some of its highest violent-crime rates. Treat that area as a daytime, purposeful visit, not a wander.

Stay in North if your trip is built around food, bars and live music, or if you are visiting Temple. Fishtown and Northern Liberties give you a walkable evening and usually cheaper rooms than Center City. Fairmount suits museum days and Kelly Drive runs.

Do not stay in North if this is a first trip and you want to walk out of your hotel to the Liberty Bell, Reading Terminal Market and Rittenhouse Square. Those sit in Old City and Center City, and the subway ride from Fishtown adds 15–25 minutes each way. Also skip the deep blocks of North Central as a base: hotel choice is thin and the streets are not set up for visitors at night.

The eating is the reason to base here. Northern Liberties and Fishtown carry most of it: breweries and taprooms, pizza, tacos, Vietnamese and Thai kitchens, and coffee shops, all packed into a few blocks along Girard Avenue and around Spring Garden Street. Most places are casual and take walk-ins, though the better-known rooms fill on Friday and Saturday — book or arrive before 7pm.

Fairmount Avenue and the streets off it serve the museum crowds: sandwiches, brunch and neighbourhood Italian. Around Temple, cheap student food runs along Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Late night, Fishtown and Northern Liberties stay open later than Fairmount, which mostly closes with the museums.

By subway, the Broad Street line runs north from City Hall with stops through North Philadelphia; Cecil B. Moore is the usual stop for Temple and is busier and better lit than some neighbours. SEPTA Regional Rail stops at Temple University Station. For Fairmount and Eastern State Penitentiary, take the Broad Street line to Fairmount and walk, or the 33 or 48 bus from Center City.

By car, Broad Street is the main spine and parking is easier here than downtown, but street parking in Fishtown and Northern Liberties is tight on weekend evenings. Distances inside the bar districts are short enough to walk; between Fishtown, Fairmount and Temple you will want transit or a rideshare. Fares and schedules change — check SEPTA before you travel.