San Francisco Neighborhoods · South of Market
South of Market
also SoMaSun zoneThe city's flat, fast-changing engine room — tech towers, world-class museums, ballpark roar, and warehouse nightlife sprawled across the blocks south of Market.
- Museums, Moscone & the ballpark
- Tech-job epicenter
- Nightlife & clubs
- Transit & freeway hub
On the map
Open South of Market on the map →The story
South of Market — “SoMa” — was the city's industrial and working-class heart from the Gold Rush on: rail yards, factories, and laborers' rooming houses in the area once called “South of the Slot.” Hit hard by the 1906 quake and fire, it was reborn in stages — Moscone Center, Yerba Buena, SFMOMA, and the ballpark — then transformed again by the 2000s–2010s tech boom and its high-rises.
Things most people don’t know
“South of the Slot”
SoMa was long called “South of the Slot,” for the cable-car slot down Market St that divided the working-class, industrial south side from the white-collar north.
A museum district
Yerba Buena Gardens and SFMOMA anchor a dense cultural quarter; SFMOMA — founded 1935 and rebuilt in 2016 — is one of the largest modern-art museums in the country.
The tech boom's home base
The 2010s planted tech headquarters across SoMa, capped by Salesforce Tower (2018) — at 1,070 feet, the tallest building in San Francisco.
The city's transit spine
Multiple Muni Metro and BART stations line Market St, the T-Third Central Subway runs under 4th, Caltrain terminates at 4th & King, and the Salesforce Transit Center tops it off.
Built on filled marsh
Much of SoMa sits on filled creek beds and bay mud — soft ground that shook hard and burned in both 1906 and 1989, and still shapes the city's seismic maps today.
Eating and drinking
Restaurants
- Yank Sing · 101 Spear St (Rincon Center)
- Deli Board · 1058 Folsom St
- Square Pie Guys · 1077 Mission St
- Montesacro Pinseria · 510 Stevenson St
Bars
- The Pawn Shop · 993 Mission St
- House of Shields · 39 New Montgomery St
- Local Edition · 691 Market St
Getting around and getting care
Transit. SoMa is the city's transit hub: Powell, Montgomery, and Civic Center stations connect Muni Metro and BART, the T-Third Central Subway runs under 4th St, and Caltrain to the Peninsula terminates at 4th & King.
Nearest hospital. Zuckerberg San Francisco General, 1001 Potrero Ave (about 1.5 mi)
Thinking about South of Market?
Send me an address and I will come back with its sun, wind and fog, what is under it, and what has closed on the block.