Etikettarkiv: National Romanticism

Style, https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkitektur_i_G%C3%B6teborg

Kvarteren Syrenen, Poppeln, Pilträdet

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Episodes 213 to 215 cross the Ascheberg street and the tram tracks to district Landala – but first some blocks that were originally part of district Vasastaden.

Episode 213: kv Syrenen

District: Landala (formerly Vasastaden)

Photo date: 5 September 2021

The Lilac Tree and the Poplar were first envisaged as one single block, in Eugen Thorburn’s plan of 1904. West of them would be built stylish cottages. But then Albert Lilienberg changed everything to what we see today, much to Thorburn’s chagrin, as detailed on page 434ff. The stone houses along Aschebergsgatan were built first and a couple of years later came the posh landshövdingehus along Erik Dahlbergsgatan, all in rather heavy National Romanticist style. Some of the architects were Ernst Torulf and Johan Jarlén. When the corner at Kapellplatsen was finally built, after the chapel had been moved, the style had shifted towards 1920s Classicism. Nils Olsson designed this house.

Episode 214: kv Poppeln

District: Landala (formerly Vasastaden)

Photo date: 5 September 2021

Aschebergsgatan 33 with its weird animals was designed by Ernst Torulf in 1913. Otherwise, all the text for Syrenen also applies to Poppeln. The corner house at Föreningsgatan was also built in the early 1920s, but blends in better with the older buildings than Olsson’s house at Kapellplatsen.

Episode 215: kv Pilträdet

District: Landala (formerly Vasastaden)

Photo date: 29 August 2021

The National Romanticist landshövdingehus designed by Arvid Bjerke and R O Swensson were meant to segue into the existing landshövdingehus around Kapellplatsen. They were already some 20 years or older when the modern development started – and only this one example at Kapellplatsen 1 was allowed to remain when the next redevelopment boom started 50 years later.

Charles Felix Lindberg was one of several magnates who donated parts of their fortunes to the city in the late 1800s, early 1900s. The fund bearing his name is targeted towards beautifiying the city, with public art, parks, or rewarding beautiful architectural designs like here at Erik Dahlbergsgatan. Emily Wijk also belonged to the families who donated monies, and her foundation provides housing for a ”better class” of women who are in financial straits.

Kvarteren Tre Kronor, Rönnen, Platanen, Kärnan, Bohus

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Episodes 191 to 195 conclude district Vasastaden-Lorensberg with a slew of schools from the early 1900s.

Episode 191: kv Tre Kronor

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 25 July 2021

For a long time, the two biggest schools in Gothenburg were Schillerska and Hvitfeldtska – at least according to students and alumni. Now, of course, many more schools abound, but few of them have this kind of monumental presence. It was designed at the end of the National Romanticist era, and not quite as oppressive as for instance the Nordhem school. I myself didn’t go to any of these schools as I grew up in Partille just outside Gothenburg.

The nurses’ home was erected at the same time as the school, during raging world war and desperat shortages of food and everything. We will encounter Caroline Wijk again in later episodes of this series. She left monies and memories as far afield as Kungsladugård, and thus made sure the family name Wijk would live on in Gothenburg. But the family itself, like Ekman and so many of the others, is no longer the shining star it once was.

Episode 192: kv Rönnen

District: Lorensberg (formerly Vasastaden)

Photo date: 24 July 2021

This whole area once held several small farms or rural cottages that are now not even a memory. When CRA Fredberg wrote about them over a century ago there were still people alive who had seen them, he included, and there are a few photographs and paintings in books and the City Museum database. In this area there was Götaberg, Leontinedal, Brantdala, Ulricedal, Katrineström, Kristinelund, Lorensberg and a bit further afield the Executioner’s Cottage.

In 1910, Albert Lilienberg created a plan for the area where a new street with trams ran up to the workers’ area in Landala, between imposing modern tenement houses. This block is one of them, built when Jugend was the hottest thing on the architect’s style palette. Some of those architects were Zetterström & Jonsson and D W Stenfelt.

Episode 193: kv Platanen

District: Lorensberg (formerly Vasastaden)

Photo date: 24 July 2021

Landala was a working class district in the 1800s and for a long time had to do without church or school services. In 1892 they finally got the Landala school, designed by Adrian Peterson who was something of a specialist in school buildings at the time. Many of his public buildings look much like this one: red brick, arch-type details and some stonework frames.

Episode 194: kv Kärnan

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 25 July 2021

The Landala workers must have been very fruitful because only 10 years later they needed another school for their children. Peterson was still active in the school business and quickly pulled the plans for this one out of his hat. For the Götaberg School he has switched to yellow brick but otherwise it looks much like all his other schools.

Episode 195: kv Bohus

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 25 July 2021

Under these watchful faces my grandparents met and fell in love in the 1920s, a hundred years ago.. Charles Lindholm was one of the many architects educated at Chalmers in the late 1800s but instead of staying he went to Stockholm and made a career there. But first he designed this National Romanticist pile for his home city.

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 Gälakvist, Skaraborg, Läckö, Koberg, Gräfsnäs, Årnäs

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Episodes 181 to 185 ramble around the Lorensberg villa-town and get all arty down by Poseidon, where Lexxians once gathered…

Episode 181: kv Gälakvist

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 20 June and 25 September 2021

When my mother studied art history in the 1980s, the department was located in one of these houses, probably Bjerke’s studio, my memory is hazy. I do remember the premises felt a bit cramped, though.

Episode 182: kv Skaraborg

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 20 June 2021

Albert Lilienberg planned the Lorensberg villa-town around a tiny square, Högåsplatsen, and made full use of the terrain contours for laying out the streets and plots. Earlier planning ideals would have laid out as square a grid as possible and instead made full use of dynamite to level the terrain – as is the custom today as well.

Högåsplatsen has a very light and airy feeling to it, also slightly English. Around it are all these lovely century-old houses: the villa where Ågren lived for 40 years before bequeathing it to the university; the only remaining wooden villa, typical of the time; the Mellgren villa that was taken over by medicos; and the rather stupendous Broström house with its nautical associations.

Episode 183: kv Läckö

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 20 June 2021

The houses in Läckö are a few years older than Gälakvist and Skaraborg, and the shift in styles is very noticeable. National Romanticism gives way to 1920s classicism and Modernism is just beginning to be felt. We add a couple of names to our list of architects: Karl Severin Hansson and Karl Samuelsson.

Two recent houses have been added too, where the architects’ usual crede that new houses should only and totally reflect the dominant contemporary style has been vetoed, either by the city architect (unlikely, that office is utterly insipid) or by the powerful interests operating on this hill (more likely, Gothenburg isn’t nicknamed Graftenburg for nothing). The two new houses are at Bengt Lidnersgatan 7 and Ekmansgatan 5. The latter was designed by Albert Svensson in what must be called a Neo-Neo-Classical style, and can be seen in Intermission IIIb.

One of the big names on the hill was Ekman, a once very influential family of traders and magnates on a par with Dickson and Wijk. Their flame has somewhat gone out these days, though. But the house that bears their name here is quite spectacular, ushering in the 1920s style that would soon be seen in all the landshövdingehus districts springing up around the outskirts of town.

Episode 184: kv Koberg

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 20 June 2021

In Koberg we add another young architect, Ebbe Crone. The houses in this block are variously offices and housing associations. Most houses in the villa-town were residential when built and then turned into offices in the 1950s. Recently, quite a few of the offices have been converted back to residential use. But not the Builders’ Association, which is still very active in its offices in Villa Hertz.

Episode 185: kv Gräfsnäs, kv Årnäs

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 6 June 2021

Finally, here we are at one of the major landmarks in Gothenburg, the Art Museum. The top of Kungsportsavenyen had long been left undeveloped because the city planners recognized that it had to be rather spectacular and not a whim or half-measure that would make everyone angry over the years. So it wasn’t until the 300th anniversary exhibition that ideas and plans finally gelled: they simply had to produce something for that event! And thus was borne the Gothenburg Art Museum, which together with the Art Hall next to it are the only structures in the area left of the exhibition. (My grandmother tells in her memoirs how she used to walk across the building site to get to school, and one day dropped a bottle of tadpoles in the excavated rubble…)

The museum contains the original Fürstenberg collection from the late 1800s, which is very typical of the time with animals and naked young women, several Dutch masters including a scary painting of the severed head of St John the Baptist, and modern sections including temporary exhibition areas in the extension designed by Rune Falk and the White Bureau. Both the Art Museum and the Art Hall were designed by Ericson and Bjerke, who together with Swensson and Torulf were responsible for the overall design of the anniversary exhibition.

Surrounding Götaplatsen were temporary strucures that were dismantled after the exhibition. It took a decade or more before the area was completed, with the iconic (yes, I use that worn word very consciously) statue of Poseidon, the City Theatre and the Concert Hall. Classicism and finest Modernism surround the open space, where political manifestations happen, music gigs take place and sports stars are given heroes’ welcomes. And Lexxians gather to sing the Brunnen-G song, at least we did a quarter of a century ago…

Kvarteren Ulriksdal, Hörningsholm, Tullgarn, Drottningholm, Sparreholm, Gripsholm, Nääs, Visingsborg

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Episodes 176 to 180 enter the area of the 1923 Anniversary Exhibition and Lilienberg-land.

Episode 176: kv Ulriksdal

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 13 June 2021

No architectural historian has devoted time and grants to this area yet so there is not much to add to the narration. The architects for this block and Drottningholm are given as Ernst Torulf, Hjalmar Zetterström, Tor Zetterström, Karl M Bengtsson, Arvid Bjerke, Ragnar Ossian Swensson, Nils Olsson and Erik Holmdal.

Episode 177: kv Hörningsholm, kv Tullgarn

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 6 June 2021

In the 1980s my mother studied art history at university and she wrote a paper on the City Theatre. I can’t remember much of it because at that time I was not at all interested in architecture or local history – so boring! Then suddenly, overnight almost, I became fascinated by both subjects. Maybe it’s an age thing.

Soon after this episode was completed, the old girls’ school and adjoining car park were razed and something else will be put up there. The zoning document suggests more performing arts space, and an entrance to the new train station at Korsvägen. Something for a later Intermission…

Episode 178: kv Drottningholm

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 13 June 2021

This block was only half-built when my grandmother passed it on her way to school, or to the family shop at Kungsportsplatsen. The south end of the block abutted the 1923 exhibition area.

Episode 179: kv Sparreholm, kv Gripsholm

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 20 and 22 June 2021

And now we enter the area where the city decided to hold its 300th anniversary exhibition, two years late in 1923. Johanneberg was built in the 1700s and had until recently been a working farm with big gardens and greenhouses but its time was up – and now the last vestiges of the grounds have been excavated away for a new train station. At least this part of Västlänken is still being built, unlike the middle station at Haga.

On the hill was the historical part of the exhibition, with wooden halls built for archeology, design, sports, crematoria (sic), crafts and victualling history, and lots of restaurants. In the middle was a big plaza topped by a strange memorial building. On this site now stands the 1984 part of the university building, and the university library stands on the former main restaurant. The original part of the library building was designed by Ärland Noreen in 1939 but it wasn’t built until 1951. The Coordinator bureau designed the 1982 extension. The yellow high-rise was designed by Jaan Allpere and Claes Melin. For the newest extension to the university building, designed by the KUB bureau, a new zoning plan was drawn up where you can read some of the text I wrote about the rock slopes in the area.

Episode 180: kv Nääs, kv Visingsborg

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 20 June 2021

With Nääs and Visingsborg we enter the Lorensberg villa area. Albert Lilienberg planned it in 1913 and it was realised by the up and coming set of architects that put their mark on Gothenburg in this and the next couple of decades. The houses were built for the poshest members of the bourgeoisie, and certainly not for plebes and commoners.

Axel Carlander was a very big man in Gothenburg at the time. He made lots of money but also worked tirelessly for the public good. Apart from this National Romanticist gem, he has left his name on a hospital overlooking the funfair Liseberg. The lodge in Nääs is still active and even has a well-designed web page.

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 Häggen, Hasseln, Högskolan, Örebrohus, Trollenäs

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Episodes 166 to 170 stroll around the Vasa Park.

Episode 166: kv Häggen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 16 May 2021

Who designed Edvard Svensson’s imposing corner house at Aschebergsgatan 1? There is a discussion on page 189 in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”. Sedenmalm is rather dismissive of the ”small builders” who had worked their way up constructing landshövdingehus. The styles are variously Neo-Renaissance, as was popular at the time. The Old Gothenburg site also collates the entries about this block in that paper – quite handy. And CRA Fredberg offers lively vignettes about life and times in the general area.

Episode 167: kv Hasseln

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 22 May 2021

When the old farm Brantdala, Steep Dale, had to give way to modern development in 1910, the area was planned by Albert Lilienberg. He put his mark on large parts of the then-city and although he was rather reviled by the following modernists, he has in later years become something of a celebrity, it seems. Books and articles mention him often.

As the area is very hilly, it had been too difficult to build on it until now, when dynamite made everything so much easier. The Domesticity house Föreningsgatan 32 was built in 1911, in a sort of Jugend / National Romanticism mix. Björner Hedlund designed it together with his father Hans. The northwest corner of the block was built a few years later and by that time fashions had shifted radically towards 1920s Classicism.

Episode 168: kv Högskolan and Vasaparken

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 27 February 2021

The old university building is listed but still in use, for representation and administrative offices. I’ve attended a couple of public lectures there, one by an adventurer who described his expedition to the Nazca geoglyphs. It was like being transported back in time a hundred years, when explorers toured the lecture circuits to finance their new expeditions! Amundsen, Hedin, Shackleton spring to mind.

The Vasa Park and its convoluted gestation is described in all my sources, a popular subject. Photos of small boys on sleds tobogganing down the steep terrain are obligatory.

Episode 169: kv Örebrohus

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 29 May 2021

The blocks around what became the Vasa Park were built around 1890 to 1900. The posh new inhabitants must have disliked the shanty town between them intensely. Likewise the other shanty town to the north, Flygarns Haga. Luckily, the authorities soon had them ”moved along” and the first wave of gentrification in Gothenburg was completed.

Örebrohus is Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Gothic rohbau, but the younger houses are starting to look at the interesting new style called Jugend.

Episode 170: kv Trollenäs

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 29 May 2021

Here is another block built and designed by firms that had started out making landshövdingehus. By now they had made enough money to spend on lavish decorations for their Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Gothic facades, as described on page 284 in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”.

Instead of brick and plaster, they could spend on limestone, granite and sandstone. Two members of SGU, the Swedish Geological Survey, recently wrote an excursion guide to the geology of Gothenburg cladding.

Kvarteren Furan, Granen, Linden, Aspen, Sälgen

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Episodes 161 to 165 witness the sprouting of tenement buildings, schools and scandalettes in circa 1890.

Episode 161: kv Furan part 3

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 18 April 2021

What is a ”tomte”, plural ”tomtar”? In American, it is usually translated as ”elf”, especially for small tomtar that help Santa Claus or Father Christmas. ”Gnome” is another term used, commonly for the garden variety. But the more original type in Sweden is the farm tomte: a small entity looking after the farm and helping the family, if they behave courteously. They were a staple of children’s faritytales. Later, this kind of tomte became conflated with the Christmas character, Jultomten, who is basically Father Christmas/Santa Claus. But before Jultomten, the main yuletide creature was the Christmas Billygoat, still remembered as a Christmas ornament made of straw.

On the house fronting Vasagatan 11, Thorvald Rasmussen, brother of one of the architects, painted several tomtar being industrious, as well as other fairytale creatures. The house is a sort of German Neo-Renaissance Alpen-style, quite at odds with anything else in Gothenburg. When it was built, this was still an area with large villas and it fitted in quite well. Even the taller residential building behind it, built a few years earlier for the whole Hedlund family, didn’t clash as much with the genteel surroundings. But a few years later, the villas gave way to stone colossi…

From my tolkienist friends, I learn that the Odd Fellows are still going strong, as are all the other old orders too. One would have thought the social democratic system that has pervaded Swedish society since the 1930s would have stamped out such activities – but the social democratic party can, if you want to, be seen as a great big lodge itself!

Episode 162: kv Granen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 1 May 2021

When I first started on this series in early 2020, it was just for my own personal enjoyment and maybe to show my hometown to some lexxian and tolkienist friends on social media. Just a bit of fun. I added some normal music, without narration. Boom! the youtube copyright algorithms struck! So I decided to make my own soundtracks, it being difficult to schedule recordings with friends who are actually good at making music. And I started narrating more intensely, to mask the bad soundtracks. Of course, the narration soon spiralled out of control, and for this long block I have included pretty much all the text I could find in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg” and the block entry in the Old Gothenburg blog.

Regarding the farms that many of the new 1800s and 1900s blocks were put up on, there is an informative paper (in Swedish) that can be found in the city museum catalogue, with a map of the general area of this episode on page 29. There are many more potentially interesting papers in the catalogue, with the tag ”kulturmiljörapport”.

Episode 163: kv Linden

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 24 April 2021

When my grandmother went to school here in the late 1910s and early 1920s, all the big stone houses around it had already been built. She described her walk to school from the family cottage on the edge of town, passing horses, crossing still un-built areas and describing various characters along the way. But in 1889 the area was still semi-rural, with intense exploitation just around the corner.

The girls’ school itself is described by both CRA Fredberg and the Old Gothenburg site (and of course in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”, page 174).

Episode 164: kv Aspen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 22 May 2021

Water pipes, bowls courts, farms, bandits, shops and tenants – the history of this block is quite rich! Once the farm, the inn and the shacks had gone, stone houses were put up around 1890. At the northern and western sides, the builders/designers were H & J Börjesson, Nathan Persson, Hedström & Svensson and C B Andersson. The rest of the block had to await new planning from Albert Lilienberg in 1910. The eastern part was built up along the steep street in 1912, from designs by Hjalmar Cornilsen and Zetterström & Jonsson. The south end wasn’t completed until the late 1910s. So we can study the architectural fashions over 30 years: French, German and Italian Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Gothic, Jugend, National Romanticism and the precursor to 1920s Classicism.

Episode 165: kv Sälgen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 1 May 2021

CRA Fredberg devotes almost a whole chapter to this school. Apparently, there was a scandalette over the architectural contract, involving the Hedlund family: S A made sure his nephew Hans won it. Björner son of Hans designed the extensions that were added in 1912. As Björner also did with Hans’s library building in 1926. What a family saga!

Kvarteren Turmalinen, Agaten, Ametisten, Karneolen

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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

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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.