Etikettarkiv: cinema

Kvarteren Hejderidaren, Dahlins äng, Plantaget, Skonaren, Fregatten, Barken

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Episodes 274 to 278 descend from district Olivedal to district Masthugget – or is it all Olivedal? Who knows!

Episode 274: kv Hejderidaren

District: Olivedal

Photo date: 11 July 2022

Gustaf Elliot seems to have been very prolific in the development along Linnégatan. Does anyone know anything more about him? He must have been inventive to build tall houses straddling equally tall hills. Fredberg relates that the rock slopes produced were far from stable and that a rock fall at Nordhemsgatan destroyed a house below it. They should have called Bergab for professional support! The almost level Prinsgatan seems to have been a more posh street, where the houses were designed by Stenfelt instead. And of course, the western side of the block, below the steep hill, was razed in the 1960s and replaced with modern housing estates. At least the ones on this side of Vegagatan are cheerfully clad with yellow brick.

Episode 275: kv Dahlins äng, kv Plantaget

District: Olivedal

Photo date: 15 July 2022

On the zoning map from 1891 you can see all the houses and sheds that belonged to the Dahlin property, scattered at the site of this block below the north end of the Nordhem Hill. They were replaced with landshövdingehus in the late 1800s and to the east with Stenfelt’s turreted stone highrises in 1907. In 1981, the landshövdingehus had to go too – to be replaced with sections from dismantled houses in the suburbs! Yes, the city had built too many housing estates in the 1970s, before the heavy industries foundered and there were no incoming workers to fill the new units. So they had the brilliant, and very circular, idea to reuse the material when continuing to upscale the inner city.

The Viktoria House is touted as the first stone house built in Olivedal. The current zoning plan has cleared the way for the property to be divided, possibly meaning that new developments are afoot…

Episode 276: kv Skonaren

District: Olivedal (formerly Masthugget)

Photo date: 24 July 2022

Olivedal, Masthugget, Linnéstaden, Långgatorna, Stigberget… This area of the city has been and still is assigned to one or more of these official or colloquial districts. Official districts and subdistricts were completely overhauled in the 1980s, to reflect demands on social services like schools and care. The ordnance survey also saw the need for updating at that time. In this project, I try to follow the lines according to current ”primary areas”, which is why this block from district Masthugget is lumped in with the old district Olivedal. Confusing? Yes!

Episode 277: kv Fregatten

District: Olivedal (formerly Masthugget)

Photo date: 24 July 2022

The houses along Plantagegatan were designed by A Engström (No 5), J Andersson (7-9) and Ch Jacobsson (11-13). Nordhemsgatan 25 used to be a textile factory but it burned down in 1990 and was replaced by the current building in 1997. Apparently there was a bit of a scandal when the house along Värmlandsgatan was built in 1990. It seems Semrén+Månsson were responsible for it.

Episode 275: kv Barken

District: Olivedal (formerly Masthugget

Photo date: 28 July 2022

Since visiting this block almost four years ago, there have been slight developments. But first a recap: some of the other architects for the older houses in this block were August Krüger and Hjalmar Cornilsen. One narrow new house has now been completed and another one just commenced – and the police house itself is being redeveloped into a ”lifestyle hotel” for Hagabadet!

Kvarteren Korpralen, Löjtnanten, Översten, Generalen, Fänriken

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Episodes 243 to 246 comprise charities and public amenities in western Haga.

Episode 243: kv Korpralen

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

Until the early 1800s, much of Gothenburg consisted of wooden houses. And devastating city-wide fires were all too common. In Haga too there were many fires, and seeing all the wood in the northern part of this block one can understand why. All houses were warmed by one or more fireplaces and there were bakeries and smithies and other businesses employing fire. Fredberg has a whole chapter devoted to conflagrations in Haga.

Episode 244: kv Löjtnanten

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

The Castle originally had a terrace on the roof, to give the tenants access to clean-ish air and sunlight. But it wasn’t waterproof so after 20 years it was replaced with an ordinary roof. I think the topside tenants were relieved, imagine the cost for buckets!

Episode 245: kv Översten

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

Imagine not being able to have a proper bath or shower! The modern city dweller shudders in revulsion at the very thought. So did many others 150 years ago I guess, and not just at the thought but at the actual pong of unwashed bodies. Thus a public bath was really necessary. Architect Axel Kumlien specialised in hospitals and other public institutions. Among other things in Gothenburg, he designed the Maternity Hospital and the original core of the Sahlgrenska hospital in Änggården, of which only one small pavillion remains today.

Episode 246: kv Generalen, kv Fänriken

District: Haga

Photo date: 7 May 2022

The Tai Shanghai restaurant was put up for sale in 2025 – the end of an era. Where will Club Cosmos have its annual meetings now? And yes, it is spelled ”Tai” and not ”Thai” as most contemporary persons think it is. As for the Dickson Foundation block, contrast these houses with the ones in Annedal.

Kvarteren Karl XII, Utanverket, Bäcken, Slottsskogsledet

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Episodes 260 to 263 look at the engineering geology behind, or rather below, Kommendantsängen and Linnégatan. And an enigma: why is there an Illuminati sign in the sidewalk outside a small shop?

Episode 260: kv Karl XII

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 6 June 2022

Looking at orthophotos of this block, you can see it is built as a single open courtyard instead of cluttered with courtside houses or several smaller courts, as in surrounding blocks. This was very progressive for its time. The 1920s in general seemed very progressive and forward-looking.

Episode 261: kv Utanverket

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 6 June 2022

I wonder why there is an Illuminati sign in the sidewalk outside a small shop… First time I passed it I missed it: who looks down at the pavement when walking briskly along busy city streets? Maybe a medium operated here in the 1910s, or the shop was a front for one of the many secret societies? Marie Hermansson has written several entertaining detective books set in 1920s Gothenburg, maybe she could take up the story. Oh and by the way, the Asklund garage was designed by the F O Peterson firm.

Episode 262: kv Bäcken

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 4 June 2022

The Creek is of course named after Djupedalsbäcken, or Råttebäcken, that runs underneath it in a culvert. Geology students are often taken on local excursions to witness what happens when you ignore hydrogeology in areas dominated by postglacial clays: subsidence! Also, many of the hastily put up houses along Linnégatan in the late 1800s had really poor foundations that meant moisture was sucked up into the buildings which rotted from within… Hopefully the modern replacements from the 1980s and 90s were built with better foundations.

Episode 263: kv Slottsskogsledet

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 6 June 2022

Kommendantsängen is still regulated by the zoning plan from 1891. On the map, one can see the original terrain and houses at that time, before development started. Rather quaint. Even the cholera cemetery is marked.

Kvarteren Valnöten, Mandeln, Persikan, Ollonet, Körsbäret, Päronet

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Episodes 224 to 227 trudge through 1970s housing estates to reach the very opposite of that era, a spectacular Jugend confection.

Episode 224: kv Valnöten, kv Mandeln, kv Persikan, kv Ollonet

District: Annedal

Photo date: 23 January 2022

The Annedal House is home to the heritage club Annedalspojkar and to a working class museum. It was built in 1876 as part of the charity housing estate in episode 220. The Annedal School next to it was originally built at the same time but the house we see today was designed by Carl Fahlström in 1883, with additions in 1893 and 1899.

In the early 1970s all the other old houses were replaced with the current buildings. Neither loud and persistent outcries nor de facto listings of valuable houses were heeded. The builders were several: Walter Lundborg Byggnadsaktiebolag, Alexandersson Byggnads AB, Gunnar Zetterberg Byggnads AB, Byggnadsfirma Ernst Rosén and Innerstadsbyggen i Göteborg AB. There is not much else to say.

Episode 225: Kv Körsbäret

District: Annedal

Photo date: 30 January 2022

Before the housing estate designed by Lund & Valentin was put up in the 1970s, Nilssonsberg was a cluster of rickety old buildings along really bad streets. It looked incredibly quaint and it was cheap to live there, but really, the new houses are much better. If also boring.

Last year I visited the fabrics shop housed in the wooden double-villa at Västergatan 1. It was just as fabulous inside as out. The Modernist curved corner house at Lilla Bergsgatan 1 was designed by Sven Steen and Vilhelm Mattson for F O Peterson. The low building was once a bank. On the slope above is a new little park that is not open to the public.

West Coast Trekkers used to rent Bio Capitol a decade or so ago, to meet and watch Star Trek. Like everything else, it has become too expensive for simple clubs. The building was designed by Nils Olsson in 1940. Next to it is another early 1940s house designed by Åke Wahlberg. Skanstorget was regulated in the 1880s, when the first stone houses in Cherry came up. What to make of the market square has long been debated but the current zoning plan is still the one drawn up in 1893.

Episode 226: kv Päronet part 1

District: Annedal

Photo date: 5 February 2022

The 1999 white paper on culturally significant architecture in Gothenburg gives some descriptions of these houses on page 230 and 231. At Västergatan 2 I stumbled across a tiny boutique with lovely fabrics so I had to go in and buy some clothes. Nils Einar Eriksson designed Västergatan 4 which was built in 1942. Strangely, there are some decorations on this Modernist facade.

Episode 227: kv Päronet part 2

District: Annedal

Photo date: 5 February 2022

We conclude district Annedal with shis splendid and well-loved Jugend confection designed by Louis Enders. It can be seen as another conclusion too, of the grand villas along Föreningsgatan.

Kvarteren Torpa, Aranäs, Axevall, Karlsten, Tidö, Vasakyrkan

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Episodes 186 to 190 visit some public and residential buildings from the early 1900s and a couple of Modernist blocks near Götaplatsen.

Episode 186: kv Torpa

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 27 June 2021

The ”front” of Torpa is dominated by a cinema built in 1936, with a facade in yellow brick that was popular at the time. Göta was one of several cinemas along Avenyn, all of them closed and converted to clothes stores or eateries – except this one which was converted back to a cinema recently, and Roy in Aranäs. In Sweden, only one chain of cinemas remains, Filmstaden formerly known as SF, and they decided they wanted an art house too, just like Roy. Thus the miraculous resurrection, coupled with an eatery.

The ”back” of Torpa is 20 years older and built in National Romanticist red brick. The architect was Hjalmar Zetterström and Gustaf Larsson built it.

Episode 187: kv Aranäs

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 27 June 2021

Royal was a cinema that was closed, and then resurrected under the name Roy (to make use of the neon sign without infringing on the copyright of the former name; clever). It used to be a normal cinema but after the resurrection it became an art house, with narrower productions, live transmissions from the Met and other places, and a cinema space that could be rented. The Star Trek association used it for several years, to show episodes on a big screen and hang out with likeminded people. But then the cinema wanted to use all available time for their own screenings and we found other premises. Not entirely easy though, all meeting venues have become prohibitively expensive.

The Royal block was built between 1932 and 1939 and the architects were Erik Holmdal, D Pehrson and Nils Olsson. It is completely Modernist with minimal decorations. The yellow bricks are typical of the time and can be seen in full glory in the south end of Olivedal.

Episode 188: kv Axevall

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 27 June 2021

Axevall was built along with Torpa in the mid nineteen noughties, and designed by Zetterström, K S Hansson and Anders Persson. My father’s aunt lived in a large flat here for a while and we visited in circa 1990. It was big and National Romanticist inside too.

Episode 189: kv Karlsten, kv Tidö

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 27 June and 17 July 2021

The Regional Archives are a lot of fun to visit. For my work, I have sometimes searched for drawings and other information about tunnels etc, which you can look at at the annex on Hisingen. The original house here at Karlsten is far too small to house all the material in Gothenburg, but I once visited with my father when he was much into genealogy in the 1980s. At that time, you had to search by hand and eye, in actual physical ledgers or on spools of microfilm that could be lent to your local library. Nowadays I understand everything is digitised and interpreted by AI. No challenges anymore! The extension from 2010 was designed by the White bureau and among other things it houses a temporary exhibition area.

The Students’ Union house can be rented for events like weddings or science fiction conventions – if you are a student or academic, and if you can afford it.

Episode 190: kv Vasakyrkan

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 17 July 2021

Until the late 1800s, early 1900s, the area around this church held several farms. Then new plans were laid out and several big public buildings were erected. A few forlorn outbuildings can be seen on old photos from the time but they too are long gone. One of the big buildings was this church, which is quite stupendous both inside and out. But I can’t find any information about the parish house. Can you?

Kvarteren Malmöhus, Oppensten, Borgeby, Örbyhus samt Lorensbergsparken

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Episodes 171 to 175 tour the tail-end of Neo-Renaissance and celebrate early and late Modernism.

Episode 171: kv Malmöhus

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 30 May 2021

Wallenstam recently changed its logo from the ant carrying a letter m or W, to a stylised ant drawn with a single looping line. Maybe the ant carrying a pine needle, as seen on Engelbrektsgatan 28, is the original logo from the 1950s?

Trying to find some information about the modern houses in the middle of the block (a real estate agent says they were built in 1943), I came across the current zoning plan for the area. It is dated 1867!

Episode 172: kv Oppensten

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 29 May 2021

Wilhelm Röhss was one of the magnates in the 19th century who donated parts of their estates to the city, to be used for the public good. Since the sums were substantial, the foundations are still operating today. The Röhss monies were used to build this museum to which my mother would drag me quite often (my favourite museum was the ethnographic one, with American Indians). When the museum was built, it was in the then-fashionable National Romanticist style. The two extensions were also designed in then-current fashions: Melchior Wernstedt’s 1930s early-Modernism and the late-Modernist one from circa 1960, by Sven Brolid and Jan Wallinder.

At the other end of the block is the Academy of Craft and Design, or some better equivalent to its many names: Slöjdförenings skola, Konstindustriskolan, Högskolan för design och konsthantverk. Hans Hedlund’s original building has been added to by Sigfrid Ericson in 1915 (the penthouse) and the White design bureau in 1992 (filling up the former courtyard). Today, it is part of the university and offers education in all the fine arts.

Episode 173: kv Borgeby

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 30 May 2021

Here is the original Valand that the current Academy of Fine Arts takes its name from. It was quite an important institution (at least locally), producing several fine artists over the years. The school moved to new premises in 1925 and has led a wandering existence since then. The Par Bricole lodge took over the house at that time and are still very much going strong.

The block is built on land that belonged to the old farm Kristinelund. Nothing remains of it but the street name, and apart from Valand nothing remains of the first stone houses either. At the south end of the block is a beautiful Modernist house designed by Nils Olsson in the late 1930s. The middle of the block was razed in the late 1950s and two new houses designed by Helge Zimdal were put up along Avenyn. Some ten years ago they were given a makeover, and the western side of the block was completely rebuilt from designs by Anna Sunnerö at the Wingårdh bureau. Gert Wingårdh is the current mega-star in Swedish architecture.

Episode 174: kv Örbyhus

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 29 May 2021

In this block, too, the back side along Teatergatan has been redeveloped from designs by Jacek Zalecki at Wingårdhs. Apparently, the previous 1930s and 1960s houses were ”shoddy” and ”disgusting” – the very same words used for the districts that were lamentedly razed in the 1960s and 70s. Plus ça change…

Originally, the whole block was built in intricate Neo-Renaissance in the late 1890s, but only the end houses have been left standing. Of the three middle houses along Avenyn, the northern one was built in 1935 and designed by Nils Olsson in a calm and clean Modernist style. The other two houses were designed by Lund & Valentin in late-Modernist style and built in 1961. As in Borgeby, they were given a makeover by Wingårdhs some ten years ago.

Episode 175: Lorensbergsparken

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 5 June 2021

When I was a kid, my parents used to go dancing at a place called Sophus, named after the last and famous restaurateur at the Lorensberg entertainment complex, much written about by Fredberg. Almost nothing remains of it today, other than the Lorensberg Theatre and the name of the whole district. And a small play area with circus horses…

The big hotel was designed by Nils Einar Eriksson in 1948, to house visiting industrialists. It still looks much like it did when it opened but the city library has been given a facelift designed by the Erséus bureau. The theatre was designed by Karl M Bengtsson but when it was turned into a cinema in 1934 it was redesigned by R O Swensson and H Widlund. In 1987 it was turned back into a theatre which it still is. For now.

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

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

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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 Kajaken, Röda Bryggan, Regeringen, Kaponjären, Stora Teatern samt Kungsparken och Trädgårdsföreningen

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Episodes 85 to 87 cover the tiny district called Pustervik and episodes 88 and 89 take us back east, through leafy expanses built on the former outer defence works. There is also an Intermission with extra stuff picked up over the course of the project.

Intermission

District: Nordstaden, Inom Vallgraven

Photo date: 1 May 2020 to 27 Feburary 2021

This is a collection of stuff I missed the first time round – and a blooper! When taking an establishing shot of the Fountain Bridge I accidentally caught a man urinating, in full view of everyone passing by. The stream is clearly visible in the photo but I masked it as I’m sure Youtube won’t allow anything that tasteless.

Episode 85: kv Kajaken, kv Röda Bryggan

District: Pustervik

Photo date: 16 August and 5 September 2020

Pustervik is the name of an inlet under the Otterhällan hill, just where the moat passed into the Göta river. West of this inlet was the old harbour and ship-building district, with lots of jetties and piers sticking out in the river. On old maps, the riverfront looks fringed, or comb-like.

In this episode, I included one block that belongs to district Olivedal or Masthugget – but the land here is actually the reclaimed Pustervik inlet, so it is right and proper to include it in this section. The Kayak was built as a customs warehouse, the precursor to the Freeport built across the river a few years later. It was designed by Karl Samuelsson right along the Rosenlund Canal, which was dug out to straighten the southwest end of the crinkly moat.

The block called Red Bridge is chock-full of history that is recounted in my sources, both books and digitals. The current buildings are not much to talk about, though, as all but one are very recent, and bland. Järntorgsgatan 2 was razed after this video was made and a new ultra-modern structure put up. It is not quite finished yet so it will be the subject of future Intermission.

Episode 86: kv Regeringen

District: Pustervik

Photo date: 5 September 2020

After I’ve made an architectural walk I often share the surprises I’ve found. Sometimes it’s a friendly cat, other times a person who strikes up a conversation when I tell them what I’m doing (architectural safari!), but mostly it’s a detail I’ve never noticed before. Like on the church in this block. Wow! It was designed by Lars Ågren of the firm GAKO, designers of many of the suburban concrete housing estates of the era.

The other fun building in this block is the former cinema. It was designed by Malte Erichs and has been an entertainment venue for a century. I only saw a few movies at Prisma as it was a bit out of the way for me and across the street lay the biggest and best theatre in town, Draken. Just before the cinema closed, I saw ”Little Dorrit” with Alec Guinness here, as part of the Gothenburg Film Festival 1989. Two movies with almost no intermission, hard to keep my eyes open at the end…

Episode 87: kv Kaponjären

District: Pustervik

Photo date: 5 September 2020

Pustervik only contains three blocks, and this last one was long un-built because it had a trench running through it until 1865. Five years later, the small clump of buildings designed by Hans Jacob Strömberg were put up. East of them was an open space, long a parking area, now a major construction site. As I write this, the contractors for the train station under Haga Church have just been fired and the tunnel work halted for the foreseeable future. Everyone saw this coming, even when the Turkish consortium won the bidding several years ago…

Episode 88: Kungsparken, kv Stora Teatern

District: Vasastaden and Lorensberg

Photo date: 22 September 2020

Where the King’s Park is today, state fortification master Erik Dahlberg laid out the outer defence works in the late 1600s. You might think a city wall, bastions, a moat and several small fortresses might be enough, but then you don’t know the Dane in the 17th century. A formidable threat! Outside the moat was a cleared space where no enemy could hide, and no obstructions for cannon shots. It was called ”glacis”, a term we still use when describing some types of earth reinforcement along railways. In 1823, the glacis was turned into four lines of trees with bridle-paths and promenades between. Some years later, the rest of the park was planted and it has withstood exploitation for two hundred years. Unless you count the motorway that runs through it…

The King’s Park is full of outdoor art and at the east end is a whole house dedicated to art. The Grand Opry was designed by Bror Carl Malmberg and is apparently an early example of opera houses of that time, the mid 1800s. Fredberg has A LOT to say about this theatre, it gets quite tedious, frankly. Among the productions I saw there was ”Don Juan” in 1983, as directed by Etienne Glaser. It was rather weird: the set designs consisted solely of ropes delineating empty space on the stage. Glaser’s experiences with this production were later turned into a movie by his wife, ”Bröderna Mozart”. This was the movie our prime minister Olof Palme had been to when he was shot in 1986. Also, Glaser is one of two persons I have written a fan letter to (and he replied!); the other one is Kenneth Williams.

Episode 89: Trädgårdsföreningen

District: Heden

Photo date: 27 August 2020

Fredberg gives a vivid description of this area before the park known as The Garden Assocation was established: miasma from the nearby slaughterhouse, morasses in the old glacis, robbers, drunks and prostitues. Tired of these conditions, and of seeing boring houses all day long, the city magnates decided to turn the reasonably wholesame meadow here into a garden centre, for promenades but also as a teaching facility and a nursery (and to move the slaughterhouse to a safe distance). The idea was to spread greenery in the city and in the new areas being planned for exploitation.

The garden has always been a favourite for gothenburgers, even today. So many pretty flowers, a lovely café in the rose garden, exhibitions, the greenhouses, birds… Recently, a number of cormorants have starte lining the shore along the moat, looking for fish. In the olden days, the park was also a dating central, and a place to be seen and admired. It had a fountain around which the glitterati would circle, as depicted by artist Ivar Arosenius.

Kvarteren Luntantu, Carolus Rex, Arsenalen, Kasernen, Boktryckeriet, Fiskaren, Fiskhallen

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Episodes 80 to 84 explore Kungshöjd with its military history, both hidden and erased. Various styles are presented: national romanticism, 1920s classicism, brutalism and 18th century masonry.

Episode 80: kv Luntantu

District: Inom Vallgraven, from Ekelundsgatan to the river

Photo date: 20 August 2020

After the artillery garrison moved out to Kviberg in 1895, the top of the hill here was open for exploitation. Most of the houses were built around 1910, and so it was with this block too. The buildings were partly residential, partly businesses and workshops. Today, almost all of them are converted to housing associations. The house at Hvitfeldtsgatan 14 was built and possibly designed by A Westerlind in 1903. Hjalmar Zetterström designed the corner house at Kungsgatan-Luntantugatan which was built in 1908. When I passed it today I noticed the carpet seller who has resided there for maybe 50 years is gone, it’s just an ordinary interior design shop now.

Episode 81: kv Carolus Rex

District: Inom Vallgraven, from Ekelundsgatan to the river

Photo date: 20 August 2020

The inn Luntantu was situated at the corner house Kungsgatan 7, whatever the name might have meant. On the page where Fredberg discusses this, there is also a picture of the old optical telegraph on Otterhällan. I guess the inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork would call it ”clacks”. Kungsgatan 7 once housed a cinema — and today one of the tenants in the old Gårda Textiles shop is the regional film board!

The houses along Hvitfeldtsgatan were designed by Nils Olsson and Sten Branzell. Gudrun Lönnroth has much more to say about the terraced houses here. As for the bastion, it is again open to sightseeing tours, I passed one group today about to enter the old gunpowder room.

Episode 82: kv Arsenalen

District: Inom Vallgraven, from Ekelundsgatan to the river

Photo date: 20 August 2020

When seen from afar, this block looks a bit like a castle or a fortress, which is the effect Eugen Thorburn, the main architect, strived for. The individual buildings were then designed by architects like Hans Hedlund, Arvid Bjerke and Gustaf Elliot. The current buildings stand on the site of the old arsenal belonging to the Göta Artillery Regiment whose barracks stood nearby. The old arsenal looked very much like the current buildings on top of the hill, if old pictures are truthful.

Episode 83: kv Kasernen

District: Inom Vallgraven, from Ekelundsgatan to the river

Photo date: 16 August 2020

The chocolate house was built in 1903 and designed by G O Johansson. Today it is of course a housing association. Until the 1970s the whole block consisted of old houses like this, but then the south part was razed to make way for office boxes. The southernmost corner house is curently being rebuilt, possibly as a consequence of the Västlänken railway tunnel which is being constructed right underneath it.

Episode 84: kv Boktryckeriet, kv Fiskaren, kv Fiskhallen

District: Inom Vallgraven, from Ekelundsgatan to the river

Photo date: 16 August 2020

In the mid 1800s there was a printing business here, run by Anders Lindgren. When the old house was razed in the 1970s, the new construction became one of the first assignments for the company I worked for: to inspect the new blasted rockface and design reinforcements to secure it from rockfalls. That is a description of pretty much everything we do as engineering geologists. Here is rock. Here is the cavern/slope/pit we want to excavate for our road/railway/utility/house. What’s the best way to go about it? And here is a completed construction: how do we maintain it safely?

The fish market area used to be bigger. East of the tiny block Fisherman was a little house for the old navigation school, torn down in 1913. Since then it has been an open space with nothing much going on. The Fish Church was designed by Victor von Gegerfelt, but for all its conspicuousness it is surprisingly spare when it comes to decorations. There are no decorations at all inside. In fact there is nothing inside since it is no longer in use. It was listed in 2013 and in 2019 closed indefinitely for extensive refurbishment. Also, again: Västlänken righ underneath…