Haight Street is the spine of the neighbourhood and the best way to take its measure. The commercial stretch runs from the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park down toward the Lower Haight, lined with vintage clothing stores, record shops, smoke shops, tattoo parlours, cheap restaurants, and the odd survivor from the psychedelic era. The Victorian and Edwardian houses above the shopfronts are some of the most colourful in the city.
This was the epicentre of the 1967 Summer of Love, when tens of thousands of young people converged on the cheap rooms of the district. The scene curdled fast and the neighbourhood spent decades rough, but it has long since gentrified into a slightly theme-park version of its rebellious self — still scruffy at the edges, still good for browsing. Walk the whole strip, drop into a record store, and look up at the houses as you go.