September 2026 · Aleppo · 4 min
The soap lane is roofed again, and the whole street smells of laurel
Two winters of scaffolding came down in August. The lane is trading properly for the first time since we started bringing travellers here.
What surprised me was the noise. For years you could hear your own footsteps in that stretch of Al-Madina; now it is boys with handcarts, a generator, someone arguing about the price of rope.
We have moved the workshop afternoon out of the courtyard and into the lane itself, which means you will be in the way. Nobody minds. Being in the way of a street that works again is the entire point.
The sections either side are still shut. That is worth saying plainly, because it would be easy to photograph the forty metres that are finished and let you assume the rest. Aleppo is being put back one roof at a time, and the honest version of a visit here includes the parts that have not had their turn.
Written for the demo