Charles Village is the university neighbourhood, home to Johns Hopkins and a concentration of bookshops, cafes, and independent restaurants that give it a pleasantly intellectual atmosphere. Charles Street is the main spine, running north from downtown through Mount Vernon, through Charles Village, and eventually out of the city entirely — it is the axis around which north Baltimore's cultural life organises itself.
The neighbourhood has a pleasant walkable scale, Victorian rowhouses in good condition, and the Wyman Park Dell nearby, which connects to Druid Hill Park. The Baltimore Museum of Art is on the edge of the neighbourhood, adjacent to the Hopkins campus. For eating and drinking in a neighbourhood rather than a tourist zone, Charles Village is the most straightforward option north of downtown.