The Stabroek ward, centred on the Stabroek Market and clocktower, is the commercial and visual heart of Georgetown. It takes its name from the city's original Dutch designation — Stabroek was the entire city's name until 1812 — and still has the densest concentration of colonial wooden buildings, banks, shipping offices, and trading houses. Avenue of the Republic runs through it and the Demerara River forms its western edge.
Daytime traffic and street vendors make Stabroek chaotic, but its history is unbeatable. Most of the city's important nineteenth-century buildings — the Public Buildings, City Hall, the cathedral, the market — are within a few blocks of each other here.