In Paris the khedive met Barrilet-Deschamps, who created the Bois de Boulogne and would design the Ezbekiyya Garden [on the model of the Parc Monceau, with small lakes, grottoes,and bridges]…Transforming the old city was out of the question…A European-style facade would instead be tacked on.
-Cairo, by Andre Raymond
The Ezbekiyya contained a number of houses of ill repute and was much frequented by British soldiers. Opposite the balconies from which scantily dressed ladies suggested their all were some very low class cafes in which yet insufficiently aroused clients could sit and gaze.
-The Mingrelian Conspiracy, A Mamur Zapt Mystery, Michael Pearce
I remember a strange thing happening to me early in my time in Cairo. I was sitting on a bench in Ezbekiyya Garden, I struck up a conversation with a man in a suit and tie. He was curious about me, my broken Arabic and my day of apparent leisure just like his. He said he lived nearby and I did something impulsive. I was in the dorm for the summer and wanted to break out of that bubble, so I asked him if I could live with him for a month or two, to practice my Arabic and learn Cairene customs. He looked at me as if I were crazy and quickly excused himself.
Later I told a fellow student what I had done, and he said that the man should not have been surprised. Foreigners had been coming to Egypt for thousands of years and settling down, often squatting in and often just plain stealing Egyptian real estate. I was like all of them. And there would be many more to follow after me.