Episodes 255 to 259 explore the northern part of sub-district Kommendantsängen.
Episode 255: kv Rysåsen, kv Skansen
District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)
Photo date: 25 May 2022
This block contains much architectural history, from the dull late-1960s tenement to the delightful 1920s Classicism to elaborate 1890s woodwork (designed by O W Nilsson). But Fredberg describes an earlier, long-forgotten vista: that of itinerant Italians living in hovels next to rowdy rogues in huts clambering up the hill towards the fortress. His descriptions aren’t dissimilar from the camps of Romanian beggars that one can find all over the city nowadays. Even the racism and classism are the same.
Episode 256: kv Batteriet
District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)
Photo date: 25 May 2022
The plaster and iron-work in the western, circa-1900 half of this block contrasts with the more sober red brick facades of the 1930s and 1980s in the eastern half. Towards Skanstorget, the 1930s houses were designed by G Jacobsson and D Persson, and contained a cinema that was turned into a theatre dedicated to dance. I haven’t been able to find any info on the nice decorations on the 1980s house, but a three-room apartment there went for just over 5 and a half million a few months ago. That’s cheap!
Episode 257: kv Kastellanen
District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)
Photo date: 29 May 2022
The Olof Asklund Steam Bakery apparently was a runaway success, rapidly expanding and needing bigger and bigger premises. When this dedicated house in The Castellan was built in 1901, it employed 100 people and a promotional picture shows five tall chimneys belching black smoke over the neighbourhood. Twenty years later there were 200 employees and in the 1960s the company merged with another bread producer and moved to big industrial premises in Högsbo, under the new brand name Pååls, now Pågen. The street where the current factory stands is named after Olof Asklund.
Episode 258: kv Vaktposten
District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)
Photo date: 27 May 2022
Hans Hedlund’s house from 1899 was built by ”SJ:s Änke- och pupillkassa”, a rather nice name. And a nice house, well designed and robustly built – unlike many of the houses built today which need refurbishment immediately the scaffolding has been taken down. Ever since I walked around this block I’ve meant to visit the Purrfect Cat Café but it hasn’t happened yet.
Episode 259: kv Murbräckan
District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)
Photo date: 27 May 2022
At Linnégatan 48 the entire facade is clad with limestone, a rather exotic rock in Gothenburg. Ten years later, fashion had swung to local materials and granite became de rigueur for decorations. There are also many other types of rock in Gothenburg facades; here is a geological guide to them!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rockyramblings 