King George Street got its name in honor of the British king George V. It is a former part of Carmel Street, which was named after the monarch to honor Great Britain, which governed Palestine from 1922 to 1948.
The street is not very big - you can walk its entire length in less than an hour - but it is very colorful. The ground floors of almost all the buildings are filled with signs for shops, stalls, and boutiques. Cozy little cafes put their tables right on the sidewalk and offer tasty dishes and refreshing drinks. There are also large shopping centers here, for example, Dizengoff Center.
There are also two alleys on this street, one of which is Unknown, and the second is Nameless. That is exactly how the names of the small dead-end branches off King George - Almonit and Plonit - are translated.
These two U-shaped alleys were built by the wealthy Meir Shapira in 1922; deep inside one of them stands a beautiful house that he built for his wife, and he rented out the other houses. Meir's wife, Sonya, who was much younger than him, decided to leave her husband. Shapira no longer knew how to win his wife back, and decided to name the little alleys - one in honor of Sonya Shapira, and the other in honor of himself, even putting up name signs.
Mayor Dizengoff was terribly displeased by this: what right did anyone have to name the city's streets as he pleased without his permission. To punish the impudent man, the mayor ordered these alleys to be given such unattractive names.
