Tzamaliotika

It isn’t because of the warehouse, although it still bore his name until 1970 when it was torn down. It is because one of the Nea Ionia neighbourhoods was named after the Tzamali warehouse when, in March 1927, 104 families who had been living there moved to the settlement, establishing Tzamaliotika. Many of the settlers were from Smyrna, but also from Aivali (Ayvalık) and Fokaia (Foça). The families were housed in 104, tiny, single-room dwellings organised in two residential blocks delineated by the following streets: M. Alexandrou, Ikoniou, Dorylaiou and Magnisias. The smallest land plots were between 22 and 30 square metres large, while the dwellings themselves had a surface area of 15 square metres. They were built in clusters and had gable roofs, with shared wash rooms, latrine and a laundry room in the middle of the block. The construction of the dwellings was funded by the National Bank of Greece, the new owner of the Tzamali warehouse after the population exchange, so that the warehouse could be vacated. The houses of Tzamaliotika were the smallest dwellings in Nea Ionia and the use of shared lavatories made living together even more difficult.    

Nowadays, the neighbourhood of Tzamaliotika, just like other settlement neighbourhoods like Tetragona and Germanika, is on the cusp of major change. There are few elderly residents still living there and the houses don’t meet modern housing standards. But for their first inhabitants in 1927, they were definitely a haven, a relief, providing them with the foundation for a creative and productive life. 

Chrysa Athanasiou was born in Nea Ionia in 1929 to parents of refugee origins. She remembers life in Tzamaliotika:

 ‘[…] when the people first moved here, they thought it was a palace compared to the warehouse. But there were shared lavatories, shared laundry rooms, conflicts, fights. Anyway… […] They called the neighbourhood Tzamaliotika because these people had been living in the Tzamali warehouse […].’