A grid of late nineteenth-century apartment blocks on the slopes between Hakaniemi and Sörnäinen, named for the rocky hill (kallio) at its centre — now crowned by Lars Sonck's granite church. Kallio was working-class Helsinki for a century, with the cheapest rents and the most pubs. Gentrification arrived in the 2000s.
The result is a district where bohemian institutions — secondhand record shops, vegan cafés, queer bars, eccentric vintage stores — exist alongside the old tradition of dive bars and reasonably priced lunch restaurants. Helsinginkatu and Vaasankatu are the main commercial streets; Linnanmäki amusement park sits on the western edge. Tram 9 from the centre.