The Deichstrasse belongs to one of Hamburg"s unique places which have been carefully restored and looked after. The old merchants" houses, dwellings as well as ware houses are still used for commercial purposes. The sides of the houses were the merchants worked faced the canal so that the goods, transferred from ships unto barges, could be delivered directly to them. The goods were then hoisted up by a winch and distributed onto the floors. In May 1842 a great fire brook out in the Deichstrasse which destroyed many parts of the city.