On a normal day, street vendors line Telegraph Avenue near the UC Berkeley campus. Pictured above: Several blocks of Telegraph are closed on Sundays for a street fair.

Telegraph Avenue (or Telegraph for short) is a street which begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California, Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California. It is approximately 4.5 miles (7 km) in length. Most popularly, Telegraph refers to a four-block section just south of the university, from Bancroft Way (which borders the campus) to Dwight Way, and is often remembered as a setting for riots or protests dating from the 1960s, as well as the crowd of street vendors which occupy the wide sidewalks.

As a result of heavy foot traffic, the area near the Berkeley campus is designated as a one-way street by the city for the purposes of traffic calming, and there have been talks of completely eliminating car access, a topic still hotly debated in the city council. Originally, Telegraph Avenue ran right up to Sather Gate, which marked the southern entrance to the university, but the campus was extended to Bancroft Way to make room for Sproul Hall , Sproul Plaza, and several other new buildings, which forced the shortening of the road by one block.

As a staple of campus and community life, Telegraph Avenue is home to many restaurants, bookstores, and clothing shops. It attracts a diverse audience of visitors, including college students, tourists, street punks, and the homeless.