Kvarteren Masurbjörken, Asken, Almen, Glasbjörken, Apeln

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 146 to 150 travel back in time, from the late 1890s to the early 1870s.

Episode 146: kv Masurbjörken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 21 February 2021

In this 1880s photo by Aron Jonason we can see the original Church of Bethlehem and part of the slum area called Flygarns Haga. The new church and ancillary buildings take up almost half of this block. It was designed by Johannes Olivegren and put up in 1963. Apart from the church itself, the south end of the block holds a seniors’ housing complex, tenements, shops and a carpark.

Aron Jonason was a prolific photographer and meister punster in the late 1800s. His friends sometimes called him ”the father of the Gothenburg witticism”. One of those friends was CRA Fredberg who wrote his biography, with a large collection of jokes. My grandmother had it and it is now in my bookshelf. But his richest legacy is the large number of excellent photos made public in the Gothenburg city museum’s database.

Episode 147: kv Asken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 19 December 2020

The YMCA’s Neo-Gothic castle is one of four park blocks that were put up in the very late 1890s. The Y held an architectural competition that was won by architects Lindvall & Boklund from Malmö – but apparently they had to have a Gothenburg manager and that was Hans Hedlund, who added his own touch to the facade. The contractor was Nathan Persson and the block was built in 1897. The block held gyms, meeting halls, tenements, and even a little cinema! Today, it is of course a highschool.

Episode 148: kv Almen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 13 February 2021

As we move west in Vasastaden, we also move back in time: we are now in the 1870s, when French Neo-Renaissance was de rigueur. CRA Fredberg recounts wistfully how this was meadowland until the 1870s, with servant girls and hussars stepping out in the new King’s Park, various shady goings on in the hills and shrubberies nearby, and poor sanitation and building standards.

Episode 149: kv Glasbjörken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 21 March 2021

There are 15 properties in this block and all but one of them from the 1870s-1880s. The architects and builders were both well-respected big names, and several who had started out building landshövdingehus in workers’ districts and now took on bigger jobs in stone. It is an all-residential block, along Vasagatan with restaurants at the ground floor. And of course there is a school too, since 1937 at Karl Gustavsgatan 5. The 1938 house was designed by Gunnar Gillermo.

Episode 150: kv Apeln

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 10 April 2021

Ah, the Heyman Villa. I had never even noticed it before I started these walks. At this house, I was trying to find the best angle for photographing the door handle when two ladies came by and they said the same thing: they had never noticed all the details. One just has to hope that the owners don’t take offence at people staring at their facade and taking pictures of it, sometimes trying to get quite close to it. There certainly are sensitive owners who demand written permission for even looking at their houses!

At the other end of the block is the house built for the Order of Coldinu. In fact, this whole west end of Vasagatan is clustered with houses built for clubs and orders, of which Fredberg writes a lot (he was a member of several). In part 364 of this series, we will find more traces of Coldinu.

Unlike many blocks in this area, this one doesn’t have a highschool. Instead there is a church, in the old Strömman house at the southwest corner. I have, however, found no information about the two 1980s houses at Bellmansgatan.

Kvarteren Vik, Nyköpingshus, Rydboholm, Avenboken, Björken

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 141 to 145 slog around long and lavishly decorated upper-middle class facades at Vasaplatsen.

Episode 141: kv Vik

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 28 November 2020

The Baptist Tabernacle, the Ladies’ School for Girls, pastry chefs and a celebrated man of letters. This block has it all! Including a full narration about design history.

Episode 142: kv Nyköpingshus and Vasaplatsen

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 5 December 2020

Fredberg and ”Vasaplatsen-Lorensberg” (e.g. page 218) write much about the history and the architecture in this area.

As you venture further from the inner city and further in time from the 1880s, lions on facades start to thin out and eventually peter out entirely. In Vasastaden they look very similar, probably because many of the decorations were mass-produced elements that could be added onto any new house. So the facades look unique and spectacular but really they are all much the same. Like teenagers…

One of the victims of the terrible tram crash of 1992 was Åsa Walldén, who had just finished writing a 16-page pamphlet about architecture in Kungsladugård. I’ve made heavy use of it in part 384 ff of this series.

Episode 143: kv Rydboholm

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 1 November 2020

On the south edge of Kungsparken is a string of smaller blocks meant to resemble the so-called patrician villas that dotted the park before the stone city of Vasastaden-Lorensberg was planned and realised. Most of these small blocks are designed as one entity, but some consist of two properties. In this block, the western half was built by the H Börjesson company in 1897 and the eastern half by O A Burman. But the facades for both halves were designed by Carl Crispin Peterson, son of Adrian. The style is described as Tudor Neo-Gothic.

Episode 144: kv Avenboken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 19 December 2020

On page 269 of ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”, Staffan Sedenmalm writes about the so-called park blocks and the general design history of the area:

Under 1890-talets senare hälft fylldes äntligen den gapande luckan i stenstadsfronten mot parkbältet. Tio år efter tillkomsten av Wijkska villan – den enda privatbostaden i denna märkliga svit av nio kvarter – blev nämligen de fyra sista parkkvarteren, två på vardera sidan av Vasaplatsen, uppförda. Tre kvarter bebyggdes med två samgestaltade bostadshus vardera, två av kvarteren för olika byggherrar. Det blev en skarp kontrast mellan de äldre kvarterens aristokratiska arkitektur och de nya med ett borgerligare kynne. Mot 1870- och 80-talens nyrenässans, formad av mått- och formprinciper som övertagits från de gamla mästarnas läroböcker och översatt från två à tre palatsvåningar i naturlig sten till hyrespalatsens fyra våningar i stenimiterande putsornering, ställdes nu de fem våningar höga tegelborgarna med sin enklare vertikala indelning och en fasadbehandling som likställde våningarna i rang. Stil- och formmässigt fick liksom tidigare varje parkkvarter sin egen karaktär. Till detta bidrog tegelsorternas rikt varierade profilprogram och kulörer med möjligheter att kombinera samstämda toner. Ett verksamt uttrycksmedel i dessa tegelfasader, rikare på kulör än plastisk form, utgjorde järnbalkongernas organiskt sirliga konstsmide. Karaktäristiskt för 1890-talets parkkvarter blev de isärdragna fasaderna på kvarterens baksida – således exponerades bakgårdarnas påvra fasader mot Storgatan ovanför en stängselmur i fasadens arkitektur med en port till respektive gård. Såväl gårdsfasader som brandgavlar fick – med undantag av ett kvarter tillhörigt en inflytelserik organisation – en enkel beklädnad av grov spritputs.

Staffan Sedenmalm, ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg. KULTURMILJÖ AV RIKSINTRESSE I GÖTEBORG. Planering och byggande utanför vallgraven 1850-1900”, Länsstyrelsen Västra Götaland 2016:43

Episode 145: kv Björken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 23 January 2021

Opposite city block Rydboholm is another equally long block that takes a very long time to explore and document. Several big-name architects and builders contributed to the splendid facades towards Vasaplatsen and Vasagatan, as listed in the narration and the block’s entry in the blog about Old Gothenburg.

In the very early 1980s I went to yoga classes in a flat at Vasaplatsen 3. It was really big, some six rooms (and a tiny bathroom) with plaster decorations around the ceilings and all. It must have been really expensive even at that time. Since then, almost all flats around Vasaplatsen seem to have been converted to offices and clinics and dentists’.

Kvarteren Borganäs, Kalmarehus, Kronoberg, Fågelvik, Ulvåsa

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 136 to 140 continue the tour along the north edge of district Lorensberg – or is it Vasastaden?

Episode 136: kv Borganäs

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 21 October 2020

Abraham Pehrsson was one of the big builders that operated in Gothenburg in the late 1800s. His company built many of the houses south of Heden, for example, but this fabulous house he built for himself. It was designed by Hjalmar Cornilsen in 1882, together with Fahlström’s house across the street making a striking Neo-Renaissance portal towards the south and the rest of Avenyn.

Episode 137: kv Kalmarehus

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 14 November 2020

The English quarter was designed as an English terraced row of the late 1860s, to satisfy the aesthetics of its English-born owners. The John Scott name lives on as a franchise of local pubs – what would the Reverend have said about that? JA Westerberg designed Avenyn 3 and August Krüger the rest of the houses along Avenyn. But all the houses were remodelled or replaced in the mid-1940s, from designs by Nils Olsson, Erik Holmdal, Herbert Kockum and C Hedin. Number 5 got a makeover in 1985 by architects Stjernberg & Hultén.

The Pripp villa at Vasagatan 52 was designed by Adrian Peterson in 1877 (”Vasastaden-Lorensberg” page 229). Unlike much that was built at that time, this house isn’t French, Viennese or Florentine Neo-Renaissance but solid German so-called Rohbau. Meaning, as well as I can understand the term, that the brick facade is left exposed rather than hidden by artistic plaster, and decorations are mainly in the form of coloured or glazed tiles.

Episode 138: kv Kronoberg

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 28 November 2020

Gothenburg is famous for three things: bad jokes, socialism during the now-defunct industrial era, and Chalmers. The latter is still very important and unlike the jokes appreciated by non-Gothenburgers too. We will return to it in part 210 of this series. The first Chalmers school was situated at the north end of Nordstan, where it is commemorated by a very small plaque in the current mall. And the Arts & Crafts school on Vasagatan moved to city block Oppensten, just south of here.

Episode 139: kv Fågelvik

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 21 February 2021

Well, the video narration is pretty complete as far as the design and building history is concerned. The refurbishment in progress in the photos was led by the White bureau, mostly renowned for daring ultra-modern designs completely at odds with lavish Neo-Renaissance.

Episode 140: kv Ulvåsa

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date:1 November 2020

The twin highrises in this block were put up by builder Janne Johansson in 1897, from designs by Hjalmar Cornilsen. The architectural fashion has now moved on to Rohbau, in this block described as Moorish or Crusader-like.

Kvarteren Glimmingehus, Sturefors, Örup, Svaneholm, Kastellholm, Visborg

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 131 to 135 enter the stone house city west of Heden.

Episode 131: kv Glimmingehus, kv Sturefors

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 21 February 2021

What’s in a name? In this part of the city, that is a very valid question. When the area south of the moat was developed in the late-1860s onwards, the western and oldest part was called Vasastaden after our father-king Gustaf. The eastern part, where we are now, was called Lorensberg after a famous entertainment property next to Glimmingehus. These district names are still reflected in the ordnance survey map. But the city has changed its administrative zones several times and now most of the combined districts is called Vasastaden. A clue to the original zoning is the names of the blocks themselves: in Lorensberg they are named after castles, in Vasastaden after trees.

Glimmingehus was first built up in the late 1880s, but only the courthouse remains. It was designed by Hans Hedlund and built in 1887. It was used as a courthouse until 2010 when it was turned into a highschool. To the right of it was a girls’ school that looks fabulous on old photos but it was replaced by offices and parking garage in the 1960s. The paddock to the left of it was replaced in the 1930s. Until I started reading up on local history, I had no idea there had been paddocks in the middle of the city.

In Sturefors, all the grand 1880s houses were torn down in the 1960s, for some reason. Of the new houses from that swinging era, the southern end house from 1960 was designed by Helge Zimdal, Avenyn 32 by Per-Axel Björk was built in 1967, and the rest of the block from 1965 came from the pen of F Löfberg. And by the way, the Sturefors castle is in Östergötland and was built by the noble Sture family around the year 1600, says Wikipedia.

Episode 132: kv Örup

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 21 February 2021

In architectural circles of 130 years ago, this block was nicknamed ”Adrianopel”, after big-name architect Adrian Peterson who designed these houses along Avenyn. The builder was Nils Andersson & Co and the first houses went up in 1881. At that time, the dominant style was Neo-Renaissance with lavish, I mean really lavish, decorations all over the facades. Cartouches, festoons, faces, atlants, lions, cornucopias… It takes a long time to walk around blocks with preserved 1880s facades. And it’s better to have a camera with a proper zoom to capture all the tiny details along the roof.

Only the properties at the north end of the block were replaced in the 1960s razing mania. Lorensbergsgatan 1 was designed by Owe Svärd and built in 1964, and numbers 3-5 were replaced in the 1970s. These properties were first owned by the Malmsjö family, who ran a piano factory at the eastern end of Vasagatan. Johan Gustaf Malmsjö started the factory in 1847 and it ran on until 1962 when it moved to Arvika and production ceased in 1978.

Episode 133: kv Svaneholm

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 19 December 2020

Here is a block with styles spanning a century. The house at Kristinelundsgatan 16 is the oldest, designed by Belfrage & Franck and built in 1879. The house next to it was built four years later. In 1930, part of the vacant lot after the tobacco factory was filled with a house designed by Nernst Hanson, at the tail end of 1920s Classicism. And finally, at the north end of the block a modern office building designed by the Tengbom bureau was put up in 1977. Though the style seems to look towards the 1980s and Post-Modernism.

Episode 134: kv Kastellholm

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 14 November 2020

The winds of change have swept through this block several times. First the farms and plantations along Södra Vägen had to go when Malmsjö’s piano factory was established here in the mid-1800s. Then came the French quarter in 1875, in splendid French Neo-Renaissance style. The houses at Södra Vägen 7-11 were designed by Hanson & Löfmark and put up in 1903. After a respite of some 30 years, it was time for the next redevelopment: on the site of the demolished piano factory, at Södra Vägen 13, a tenement building by Gunnar Hoving was built in 1931, and in 1939 the corner houses along Avenyn were replaced by splendid Modernist buildings, the north one by A M Stark and the south one designed by Nils Olsson. Olsson’s house is the one with the cinema, which is forever imprinted in my memory as where I first saw ”Snow White”.

The northeastern corner house was built in 1956, from designs by Erik Ahlsén, and long held the offices for the insurance company Folksam. Their logo spun on a spiral-shaped sign on the roof until just recently. Finally, the middle of the block along Avenyn was replaced with the current houses in 1969. Numbers 6 and 8 were designed by Johan Tuvert and numbers 10 and 12 by the Contekton bureau. Phew, so much name-checking!

The burger joint changed owners a couple of months after I photographed it, and was immediately repainted. So the winds of change still whistle briskly around the corners of this block.

Episode 135: kv Visborg

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date:11 October 2020

Until Sweden was pulled out of the dismal poverty that had been our lot until the early 1900s, vermin was a terrible problem. In 1934, just as politicians started flexing their muscles for raising the standard of living that became a mania of urban renewal thirty years later, the anti-vermin company Anticimex was started. Their first enemy was the horrible bed bug, today making an unwelcome comeback in Swedish homes and hotels.

Before city block Visborg was built, this was a farm called Mariefred, and it remained at the east end of the block as the western house was put up in the late 1870s. The western house was designed in elaborate Neo-Renaissance style by Carl Fahlström. The remaining farm was bought in 1910, when the eastern half of the block was built. The basement towards Avenyn has been restaurant premises for a hundred years. In 1971, Gothenburg’s first pizzeria opened here and we sometimes went there when I was a kid. Yum.

Kvarteren Turmalinen, Agaten, Ametisten, Karneolen

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 127 to 130 lecture a bit on mineralogy and continue the tour through Jugend, National Romanticism and 1920s Classicism.

Episode 127: kv Turmalinen

District: Heden

Photo date: 28 February 2021

National Romanticism was a Swedish style that was popular in the early 1900s. It wanted to emulate the styles from when Sweden was great, Gustaf Vasa’s 1500s and the mid-1600s, and also romanticised Sweden’s agrarian heritage. The result was imposing red-brick buildings with decorations in the form of brick patterns, granite sculptures and reliefs, and copper details. It was also popular to build wooden houses, often dark and heavy. A prime example of this style is the Masthugget Church. We see a bit of this on the east side of this block.

On the other side of the block is Södra Vägen 32 which was designed by Hjalmar Zetterström in lightest Jugend style. He also designed Skånegatan 31 a couple of years later, tilting towards National Romanticism. The other Jugend houses along Södra Vägen were created by builder O A Burman and the splendid backdrop to Korsvägen by Robert Anderson Arelius in 1911. Jugend was a continental style, often with a focus on crafts and botanic shapes. On the continent it can be quite extreme, Art Nouveau, while in Sweden it can verge towards National Romanticism as our kind of crafts are heavy and dark, not light and airy.

Episode 128: kv Agaten

District: Heden

Photo date: 21March 2021

We continue with lots of Jugend built around 1910. Berzeliigatan 11 was designed by Frans Frise while numbers 13 to 17 came from the pen of Hjalmar Zetterström. Södra Vägen 24, however, was designed by Hjalmar Cornilsen. Phew, so many names!

Episode 129: kv Ametisten

District: Heden

Photo date: 28 February 2021

The middle part of this block was built later than the ends towards Engelbrektsgatan and Berzeliigatan. By that time, Lilienberg’s plans had come into force and National Romanticism was in full swing – which is very much in evidence along Wadmansgatan and Hedåsgatan.

Episode 130: kv Karneolen

District: Heden

Photo date: 28 February 2021

The first houses south of Heden were built in the 1890s, with imposing facades towards the city. The corner house at Södra Vägen 2 was particularly grand, built by Abraham Pehrsson and designed by Hjalmar Cornilsen.

Fredberg writes about Vassnöden and the Jamaica Inn. The style is lively, a bit sentimental, and with the old Swedish grammar that all young fantasy writers fail so miserably at mastering.

Kvarteren Rubinen, Opalen, Bergkristallen, Onyxen, Granaten

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 123 to 126 take a tour through architectural fashions from the 1890s to the 1990s.

Episode 123: kv Rubinen, kv Opalen

District: Heden

Photo date: 25 December 2020

As you can see by my WordPress signature, my alias in the Gothenburg Tolkien society is Ruby Gamgee. So city block Ruby feels right at home! It’s a little bit weird but also nice how much my alias has become part of my overall personality: before, my favourite colour was blue and now it’s ruby red. When I could create a coat of arms, my life suddenly filled with penguins. And above all: the many and very good friends I have made.

In city block Opal, the 1880s landshövdingehus were torn down in the 1960s to make way for modern buildings – a story that is true for every other district in Gothenburg too. The hotel by Henning Orlando was in perfect 1960s style until the topside extension was added in 2007. Now it just looks wonky. The other buildings in the block were designed by Lennart Kvarnström, and the Lund & Valentin bureau.

Episode 124: kv Bergkristallen

District: Heden

Photo date: 13 March 2021

Now we enter the area south of Heden, where tall stone houses sprang up in a tight cluster from the 1890s to the 1920s. The old farms, tobacco plantations and shacks had to go, to make way for the demands of a modern city – words that are still true today and probably were true even for the old Greeks.

My main source for this area, and indeed the next 50 or more episodes of this series, is an in-depth study of planning and architecture in Vasastaden-Lorensberg, made by Staffan Sedenmalm in 2016. Chock full of information! My other source is of course CRA Fredberg, and my grandmother’s memoirs; she grew up just south of here in the early 1900s.

Along Hedåsgatan, the middle part of the block has been pulled back a bit from the street, creating a more open space. This is a hallmark of the city plans drawn up by Albert Lilienberg, who was planning director in Gothenburg between 1907 and 1927. Lots more will be said about him in episodes 389ff of this series. Berzeliigatan 22 is a very light type of Jugend, almost Rococo, designed by Robert Andersson in 1903.

Episode 125: kv Onyxen

District: Heden

Photo date: 13 March 2021

The area south of Heden was mostly developed by builders who had worked their way up from wooden landshövdingehus. They included August Westerlind, Johan August Frise, Johan Peter A Rydgren, Hans A Kilander, C A Lund, J A Westerberg, Nathan Persson and Abraham Pehrsson. They mostly drew their buildings in-house and only the posher houses along the main thouroughfares were designed by proper architects, like Hjalmar Cornilsen, Frans Frise, Zetterstöm & Jonsson and Olof Holmén.

Sten Sturegatan 21 was built in 1905 by Carl Axel Gillberg. It is a Jugend-type house but a bit heavier than usual, almost Baroque.

Episode 126: kv Granaten

District: Heden

Photo date: 20 March 2021

The stone desert continues, as Fredberg would have put it. The houses along Skånegatan were built as the noughties Jugend had turned into the 1910s National Romanticism, and even into the 1920s Classicism. They are too humble to be worthy of separate comments in my sources, though. The odd fire or too-severe subsidence damage has caused some old buildings to be replaced in the 1990s. Some of the houses along Södra Vägen were designed by Olof Holmén and built in the noughties.

Kvarteren Beryllen, Smaragden, Diamanten, Malakiten and Exercisheden

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 119 to 122 survey the north part of district Heden, with private and public building styles spanning a century and more.

Episode 119: kv Beryllen

District: Heden

Photo date: 19 September 2020

During Gothenburg’s 400th anniversary celebrations last year, one event was the fact that the ”utility-historical collections” in Elyseum, Hans Hedlund’s Art Nouveau fortress of electricity, were open at a time when others than OPAs could visit. I jumped at the opportunity – and it was fabulous! Gas works, electricity production, district heating, cables and pipes, and a recreation of the first exhibition of electrical gadgets that you might use as a pioneering electricity consumer. Wow. If you want to go, the opening hours are 1000-1400 on Wednesdays. Or book a private showing.

Episode 120: kv Smaragden

District: Heden

Photo date: 19 September 2020

The architect Johan August Westerberg designed the splendid tenenment buildings for employees at the state railroads, while the 1892 house with the tower was designed by K Johansson. And you can read all about the 1891 industrial exhibition in CRA Fredberg’s third volume of stories about Gothenburg of yore.

Episode 121: kv Diamanten

District: Heden

Photo date: 6 September 2020

Oscar Dickson’s ”palace” at the west end of The Diamond was designed by William Allen Boulnois and built by local building firm P J Rapp, with imported English workers. Boulnois also designed Villa Överås in Örgryte, which we might visit in several years’ time if I continue with this architectural hobby.

It’s rather unusual to have two churches in one block. The Methodist church was designed by Karl Magnus Bengtsson, in a mixed Swedish-English 1920s style. And the 20 years older house it was added onto was designed by Oswald Westerberg, son of Johan August. The Roman Catholic church was built ten years later, from designs by Carl Rosell. It was adequate at the time but today it is always packed full on Sundays, many attendants have to stand throughout the 90-minute service.

Parkgatan 6 was built at the same time as church and designed by Gotthard Gillermo. The G D Kennedy house, by Gotthard Åhlander, is one of the last examples of charitable housing made possible by donations to the city by wealthy merchants and financiers. For a hundred years, that was a common and commendable practice, to share wealth and be remembered. From the 1930s, Sweden became a socialist state with the aim of lowering class barriers and sharing wealth, the so-called People’s Home, and donations were no longer needed to aid poor people. I guess it is time to take up that old practice again now.

Episode 122: kv Malakiten and Exercisheden

District: Heden

Photo date: 19 September and 11 October 2020

CRA Fredberg writes enthusiastically about the so-called Rifle Movement that flourished in Gothenburg for a few years in the 1860s. They marched about, held gun competitions, and built this sports hut at the edge of the military exercise field, Heden. The movement quickly faded into ancient history, but the house endures, with sports activities almost every week. The architect was Frans Jacob Heilborn.

The Sports House where the farm Katrinetorp (or the Flea Pit as it was apparently called) once stood, was built from scratch for the 1923 Anniversary Exhibition, from designs by the exhibition’s official architect Arvid Fuhre. The Exhibition was located not just at the main area around Korsvägen: here in Heden was the farming section, for instance, and over on Hisingen was ILUG, the first international airshow after the Great War, at a float-plane harbour and airfiled opened in 1923 and only closed when Landvetter Airport was built 50 years later.

Liseberg acquired the hotel at the south end of Heden in 1981, and about that time the bus stop house was built too. There have always been unrealised plans to fill Heden with more houses, preferably tightly clustering highrises which is de rigueur today. But it is a very useful open space, accommodating healthy athletics, events like the horse championships a few years back, and circuses!

Kvarteren Topasen, Zirkonen, Månstenen, Akvamarinen, Ullevi, Heliotropen, Bärnstenen, Polishuset, Arenan

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 115 to 119 string a necklace of semi-precious stones from the mid-1900s, and engage in some sports and policing as well.

Episode 115: kv Topasen

District: Heden

Photo date: 27 February 2021

The Gothenburg 300th Anniversary Exhibition in 1923 must have been an amazing event. I wish I could have seen it! My grandmother wrote about it in her memoirs, that she went several times and had a great time. At the Gothenburg Historical Museum site you can look at loads of official photographs from Jubileumsutställningen, and dream of a hundred years ago.

Fifty years later, the city decided to spruce up the old exhibition area with sports facilities and a modern convention centre. And developments are still ongoing! Svenska Mässan is a hundred years old but the buildings on the site have come and gone. The current main building and the first Gothia Tower are from 1984. The Mercury logo is also a hundred years old, first employed during the Anniversary Exhibition and concurrent conventions.

Scandinavium was designed by Poul Hultberg and had a long and expensive gestation period. Controversies still abound: it was ultra-modern fifty years ago but today the city plans to tear it down and replace it with something else. The Valhalla Lido was built in 1956, from designs by Nils Olsson and Gustaf Samuelsson. The main swimming pool has a very zeitgeisty mosaic that you can look at instead of being splashed by the hordes of swimmers that use it daily.

But I still haven’t figured out what the sculpture by the river is…

Episode 116: kv Zirkonen, kv Månstenen, kv Akvamarinen, kv Ullevi

District: Heden

Photo date: 19 September and 24 December 2020

There are no residential buildings between Skånegatan and the Mölndal River, only schools and events centres. All of them are from the 1940s or later – except Katrinelund. The modest kindergarten was built in 1963.

The city’s property company Higab also manages Ullevi, the 75000-seat arena that is mostly used for rock concerts these days. It used to be called New Ullevi, designed by Jaenecke & Samuelsson. The Old Ullevi arena was recently torn down and rebuilt, so it should properly be named New Old Ullevi, right?

Episode 117: kv Heliotropen

District: Heden

Photo date: 24 December 2020

What a warren of schools! Even old Katrinelund has become a school, for gardening and farming. The oldest school building in The Heliotrope is the east wing of Burgården High, originally called the Gothenburg Middle School, that was built in 1938 from designs by Sigfrid Ericson. In 1947 came the Practical Middle School from the pen of Axel Forssén and the girls’ school from 1950 was designed by Erik Ragndal. The latest addition is the west wing from the 1990s, with the striking sculpture by Roland Anderson.

The Norwegian Sailors’ Church was designed by the wonderfully named architects Gudolf Blakstad and Herman Munthe-Kaas. Sailors’ churches are very useful: when my mother and I went on a voyage to Amsterdam in 1971 the ferry took damage in a storm and we were stranded, waiting for my father to arrive on his ship. The Swedish Sailors’ Church took us in and we were very well looked after.

The cineplex under the skate park was originally meant to be built inside the hill behind the Arts Museum. That project was appropriately named the Hall of the Mountain King, but when it was actually realised twenty years later, with the same name, it was as a concrete bunker. It’s functional enough though, even has a mini-IMAX these days.

Episode 118: kv Bärnstenen, kv Polishuset, kv Arenan

District: Heden

Photo date: 16 and 20 September 2020

More public buildings and offices! City block Amber was built ten years ago, filling up an open area that once was a soldiers’ cemetery and a meadow belonging to the old brick works. The new buildings were designed by White Architects, with pre-rusted iron cladding that was a big fad in 2015.

The Police House was built in 1967 and designed by the Backström & Reinius bureau. You can’t see it, though, as it is a classified building and it is forbidden to take photos of it. It was recently extended to a whole judiciary complex, with one building for courtrooms and another for holding cells. But given the current crime wave it would probably need even further extensions – Sweden has become the new Sicily.

Next to the law is sports. The New Old Ullevi arena was built in 2009 and is often used for football matches. The tennis complex harks back to 1901, when my ancestor took up office as caretaker. The 2016 highrise was designed by the Design Bureau (sic).

Kvarteren Nornan, Lejonet, Cedern, Triton, Neptun, Eken, Stenen

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 111 to 114 explore the evolution of the south part of Gårda, with former factories, housing old and new, and infrastructure.

Episode 111: kv Nornan, kv Lejonet

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

In south Gårda, several of the blocks are named after various deities, most of them Greek. Here, however, we have the name for the fate-goddesses in Nordic mythology. They are calle Urd, Verdandi and Skuld, variations on the verb ”to be”. How fitting that the factory built in this block is named after the Nordic fairy or elf, Tomten!

The main building was designed by Carl Ritzén and the clock tower by Arvid Bjerke. They were built just in time for the 300th anniversary expo that in 1923 was built up across the river from here. The rest of the block was redeveloped by Skanska in 1986, and is a housing association for seniors, with restaurant and acitivities centre etc. It looks quite nice.

From The Lion and southwards, we meet the remains of the old Gårda – described as a vibrant community of block upon block of landshövdingehus. When the motorway came through here in 1965 almost all of it was demolished, but you can see how different the district looked at heritage sites.

Episode 112: kv Cedern, kv Triton

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

On the city’s planning site is a document from 2008 that says the Cedar and the half-blocks north and south of it will be torn down to make way for parking garages. So far, nothing has happened other than refurbishment of the rather dilapidated landshövdingehus.

The modernist mineral-water building was designed by Folke Bensow, according to the current owner Higab. Apotekarnes was bought by Pripps in 1950 but the brand name is still going strong. It is above all used for the Swedish Christmas drink that keeps Coca-Cola at bay: julmust. It’s a fizzy sugary drink that is a must (ha ha) during the festive season.

Episode 113: kv Neptun

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

Neptune was built in the very late 1920s and was designed by Erik Holmdal and Nils Olsson, prolific architects of landshövdingehus and other buildings at the time. The block was refurished in the 1970s, while the rest of south Gårda was demolished. But then it was left to rot for 40 years despite being semi-listed in the 1990s.

Episode 114: kv Eken, kv Stenen

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

The current zoning plan, from 1986, for city block The Oak gives some hints as to why it hasn’t yet been torn down and replaced with parking garages. The underground consists of 70 to 80 m thick layers of clays, sand and till. Various tunnels underneath the houses and the motorway have caused lowering of the watertable and thus quite serious subsidence. At least the river is far enough away that flooding isn’t yet a major problem – not yet…

The Focus House from 1973 was designed by Arne Branzell. It covers the whole area that was the manor house and gardens of Underås, which is Underhill in English. It was an important property from the late 1500s to the 1960s, when it disappeared. The only trace left of it today are the trees and the plaque outside the Focus House.

Even more Under The Hill is the Gårda Tunnel, which I inspected in July 2020. Railway and road tunnels are inspected every six years, at least, with focus on rock, reinforcements, leakages and anything built into or onto the rock surface.

Kvarteren Örnen, Svanen, Geten, Bleket, Gumsen, Lammet

Publicerad den av
Svara

Episodes 107 to 110 explore the industrial and social heritage in the middle part of Gårda. Most of it has been redeveloped, not once but twice – or more.

Episode 107: kv Örnen, kv Svanen

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

Almost all of the old industrial estate Gårda was demolished in the 1960s, to make way for the new motorway that bisects the eastern part of Gothenburg. New houses were erected in the 1980s, as close to the motorway as was deemed safe. Some of the earliest skyscrapers in Gothenburg were built here at that time too, now long since over-shadowed.

The middle part of district Gårda has been turned into an American-type commercial district with skyscraper offices. All this on marine and glacial clays next to a small river! The newest skyscrapers were finished in 2023 and are documented in Intermission part III.

Episode 108: kv Geten, kv Bleket

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

Just a handful of old houses in Gårda were preserved, listed or turned into a museum. Once the corona pandemic was over and forgotten, other museums opened up too, but the Belt Factory is still very much worth a visit! It’s full of old looms and stuff, and they sell some of their products too. Very useful when making tolkienist outfits.

Episode 109: kv Gumsen

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

The old Gårda was not just an industrial estate but also contained many tenement houses for its workers and their families. The school here was closed in 1977 – some ten years after the motorway right next to it had been opened! How could they let children roam there for so long? Anyway, the building seems not to have much of a future.

The parking garage is one of at least three from the post-modernist 1980s that I’ve seen so far on my ramblings. This one was decorated by Klas-Göran Tinbäck who appararently is still alive, at the time of writing (2023).

The firm Tomten not only manufactured detergents etc, but for some reason also sparklers. They are still known as Tomtebloss in Swedish and are branded enthuiastically at Christmas.

Episode 110: kv Lammet

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

Many of the factories in Gårda were built along the Mölndal Creek or River. It was used as a canal for transporting goods and also as a ditch for effluvia. Further up-river were several businesses that have left a very unpleasant chemical legacy in the river bottom. Dredging is quite hazardous but necessary, as the lower part of the river is very flood prone.

The Wool Yarn Factory has its own page at the Higab site.