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.