Fejø Frugt - the fruit sellers from Fejø 2022

/

Fruit sellers from Fejø come to Nyhavn every Autumn to sell their freshly-harvested pears, apples and plums on the quayside. They also have fruit juice, plum marmelade and fruit vinegar from the island and they are more than happy to let you taste the fruit and to answer questions about their orchards and about the fruit they produce.

All the fruit is fantastic but, in particular, it’s the Clara pears that that seem to me to epitomise all that is distinct and best about Danish seasonal food They are a distinct, almost luminous green and are crisp with plenty of juice and are good as an easy snack or with cheese. I can’t remember ever seeing them in England and they are seen here in Denmark only at this time of year.

The boats and the fruit sellers are in Nyhavn from today and through to Sunday 11 September 2022.

Frugten fra Fejø

 

a curious design to get across a serious message?

/

Benches like this have appeared in about half a dozen places around the city.

My first thought was that it seemed like a rather extreme way to stop people stretching out and sleeping on park benches. Then I wondered if it was a particularly thick apprentice in the ironworks who got the measurements wrong but that seemed more than a bit unlikely as these benches have been made here since 1888 so, really, they should know what they are doing by now.

Then I saw an article in the newspaper that sort of explained everything. They are 85 cm too high and that's the height that some scientists have suggested that sea levels will rise by the end of the century if we do not tackle CO2 pollution and sort out climate change.

The pedant in me thought that it's a bit of an obscure way to represent impending disaster and that it only really works if the benches were at the end of Ofelia Plads where the concrete runs down into the sea of the harbour but then anything helps if it makes people stop and think .... even if it is only to think how the hell would I get up there or, come to that, get down without breaking an ankle.

design classic: the Copenhagen bench
the Copenhagen bench
high water in the harbour
Ofelia Plads

 

World Happiness Report 2022

/

The first World Happiness Report was published in 2012 so the report this year marks a tenth anniversary.

Data for the report is gathered by Gallup World Poll and then drawn together by independent editorial panels.

The report is now based at the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) at Columbia University.

It’s possible that the title is taken by some to suggest that the conclusions are looking at general truths that are somehow more trivial than axioms that measure any ranking of countries by wealth or power or other economic criteria but that would be a world where big is better and a world where politicians and governments make value judgements about success, as they see it, rather than looking critically at the consequences of their policies as they have an impact - for good or ill - on the everyday lives of the people of each country.

The relevance and the influence of these reports, means that happiness is now seen as a new economic paradigm.

There are six main factors considered in drawing up the tables …… the GDP per capita of each country; the levels of possible social support; the expectation people have to live a healthy life; a judgement of their freedom to make life choices; the level of generosity and, finally, people’s perception of levels of corruption in both the government and in business.

Positive effects were judged by individuals as ‘measures of laughter, enjoyment and doing or learning something interesting’ and a negative affect was determined by a measure of 'worry, sadness, and anger.'

Chapter headings for the report this year indicate new priorities that have been dictated by a global pandemic that has lasted for longer and has had a much greater impact than politicians anticipated.

The headings for the sections of the report are ……

  • Overview

  • Happiness, Benevolence, and Trust During Covid-19 and Beyond

  • Trends in Conceptions of Progress and Well-being

  • Using Social Media Data to Capture Emotions Before and During Covid-19

  • Exploring the Biological Basis for Happiness

  • Insights from the First Global Survey of Balance and Harmony

League tables can be invidious but assessing which countries have improved and which have dropped down through the table and the reasons for that are clearly significant.

If you look at the table, Finland is yet again at the top as the happiest nation but, also significant, the Nordic nations occupy five of the top eight places.

These are relatively small countries that are, in broad terms, wealthy but with relatively small and certainly less-obvious gaps between the wealthiest citizens and the poorest. They are countries with a high level of trust in their governments and they are countries that, through deliberate political decisions, invest in high-quality education at all levels and in the best possible health care.

Above all, I feel, they are countries that have a quiet self confidence.

Two years after I moved to Denmark, the Brexit referendum came along, and, inevitably, I got into conversations with Danes who were intrigued and generally surprised about what was happening in the UK. One director of a design company, pointed out that “Denmark learned, long ago, how to be a small country.” Clearly, he did not mean that Denmark has learnt how to be subservient but that, like the citizens of other Nordic countries, Danes know that they just has to get on with everything, good or bad, because, for the big nations, what Denmark does or does not do is not a priority. What he was implying, of course, was that to make Brexit a success then England still has to learn how to be a small country.

Before moving here, to write about design, I visited four capitals, starting with Helsinki, because I wanted to meet designers and see the latest architecture so I was clear in my own mind what defined the separate characteristics of design in each country. I had last been to Finland in the 1970s when I thought that it was the gloomiest and the most inward looking of the Nordic countries so the transition I saw was amazing. Everyone that I spoke to was incredibly open about their work and clearly pleased that I was there to look for myself to see what they are doing but there was a clear sense that they were not that worried if foreigners approved or not. That was not indifference but a very firm but a quiet sense of self confidence.

So, maybe, that is another definition of happiness in a country …. that a majority of people feel both content and confident in themselves and in their future.

download the World Happiness Report 2022

 

with 146 countries assessed,
the top ten countries in 2022 were:

  1. Finland

  2. Denmark

  3. Iceland

  4. Switzerland

  5. Netherland

  6. Luxembourg

  7. Sweden

  8. Norway

  9. Israel

  10. New Zealand

note:
the gaps between these countries at the top of the table are small when compared with the much larger gaps between the countries who were ranked at the bottom of the table

Santa Lucia

/

Today, the feast day of Santa Lucia will be celebrated in Sweden, Norway and Denmark with candle-lit processions in schools, churches, hospitals, and homes for the elderly. Children, dressed in white gowns with crowns of dark green leaves, carry candles or lanterns and there are Lucia songs and, by tradition, sticky saffron buns.

Copenhagen has its own distinct celebration where canoes are decorated with coloured lights and some even have Christmas trees. The large flotilla ... more than 300 canoes took part last year ... forms up at Kalvebod, just below Langebro, and from there, just as it gets dark, they paddle up the harbour to Nyhavn and gather at the inner end to sing Christmas songs.

They return to the harbour and cross over to the Christianshavn canal where they stop to sing again at the bridge at Christianhavns Torv. It is then on to the south end of the canal and, crossing back over the harbour, they paddle along Frederiksholms Kanal, around Christiansborg, and finally, from Knippelsbro, it is back to the start for a total distance of seven kilometres with the whole thing stretching over three hours.

Large crowds gather on the quays and bridges along the route to watch and to join in with the singing and, for many, this is the event that marks the start of the Christmas season.

The Santa Lucia flotilla seems like a suitably dramatic event to mark the end of a year of posts here about how the citizens of Copennhagen use the streets and squares and the parks and harbours for an amazing range of exhibitions, cultural celebrations, sports events and festivals outside.

Since the middle ages, public spaces - squares, streets and the harbour and, from the 19th century, city parks and gardens - have been used for the staging of celebrations and religious festivals and parades in the city but, of course, with Coronavirus restrictions, events that can be held outside have become more important and even more popular.

the canoes and surf boards come into Nyhavn with spectators on both quays and on the bridge at the centre of the harbour

view along the north quay of Nyhavn with the historic ships moored here decorated with lights for Christmas and the stalls of the Christmas market running up to and into Kongens Nytorv …. the large public space at the top of Nyhavn

 

the new Hart Bageri on Holmen

/

The small Hart bakery at the south end of the inner-harbour bridge has closed and their new bakery and cafe has opened slightly further out, on the other side of Papirøen, in the old timber-framed buildings of the mast sheds.

There is space for seating inside and there is a long terrace outside with seating and tables that look out towards the opera house.

see earlier post on the new artisan bakers

Hart Bageri
Galionsvej 41,
Copenhagen DK-1437

 
 
 

today was the Copenhagen Half Marathon

/


The start of the marathon was at Fælledparken and from there runners came down across the north end of the lakes and along, one block back from the lakes, before crossing over the lakes on Dronning Louise Bro. It was then straight on through Nørrebro to the railway station before heading west and south, down through to Frederiksberg on a zig zag route, to the harbour at Fisketorvet.

From there it was a long straight run - along the 02 - to Børsen and up to Kongens Nytorv and along Bredgade before swinging out to the east through Østerport to turn back down and back for the finish, back at Fælledparken.

Car traffic within the circuit was tightly restricted and at key points pedestrians could cross over into the inner city if there were appropriate gaps between runners or, at busy points, by temporary bridges.

The photograph is of runners was taken at Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Den Sorte Diamant / the Royal Library known generally as The Black Diamond. Here they are just over half way through the run but, at least, heading for home.

 

Car Free Sunday 19 September 2021

/


Much of the centre of the city was closed off to traffic for the Copenhagen Half Marathon in the morning and signs and bariiers and marshalls were in place so the restrictions were kept in place through the afternoon for Car Free Sunday.

All the gantries for TV cameras were still in place on Dronning Louises Bro but after the runners are passed along Nørrebro the normally busy road was converted with food stalls and play areas for children including dance lessons. DJs set up sound systems and people broght out their deck chairs or just sat on the kerb chatting to neighbours. Kids used chalks to cover the tarmac with amazing drawings.

It all showed, only too well, what we give up to cars.

 

fruit from Fejø

/

This morning two sailing ships came into the harbour loaded with boxes of fruit from Fejø.

Each year in September, immediately after the main harvest, growers from the island bring their fruit into Copenhagen with boxes of pears, apples and plums, and with several different varieties of each, to sell from the quayside of Nyhavn.

They have docked above the bridge, just where Lille Strandstræde comes into Nyhavn, so they are close, appropriately, to the house of the 18th-century sugar merchant Ludvig Ferdinand Rømer who imported raw sugar from the West Indies to be refined in his sugar works in the yard behind the house.

The arrival of the Fejø fruit growers gives a sense of what the harbour must have been like in the 18th and 19th century when citizens would have heard rumours about which ships had returned and would have come down to see the cargo they carried.

The growers from Fejø will be selling their fruit from the quayside in Nyhavn everyday through to Sunday 12 September.

 

Beach Volleyball on the harbour quay

/

This weekend - on Friday 13, Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 August - there is a beach volleyball competition on the quay on the city side of the harbour. It’s at the corner of Nyhavn - where the inner harbour bridge crosses over to Christianshavn - and a temporary court and a stand have been set up specifically for the event.

This is yet another good example of how much the citizens of Copenhagen make use of public urban spaces for major events outside.

Monocle magazine top cities for quality of life 2021

/

Since 2007, the magazine Monocle has published an annual Quality of Life Survey that ranks cities around the world as "liveable locations".

They thought that it was inappropriate to produce a list last year, at a high point in the pandemic, but their journalists and research team now see cities "building back bigger and better" so their criteria for the list in 2021 - recently published - have changed to reflect this with emphasis on "confidence and the push for a quality of life that works for all."

In the introduction to the list, Monocle sets out key requirements for a liveable city including "robust, dependable services, plenty of green spaces and strong leadership" and their important message is to "get the basics right and it's easier to weather the catastrophe."

I assume that the typical reader of Monocle is relatively young but well established - so 25 to 45 and professional; well off or affluent rather than wealthy; used to travelling frequently for work or for leisure and with high expectations when it comes to food, eating out and spending on clothes and furniture. This is reflected in their assessment of each city but the magazine has always been astute about and critical of public services - particularly international, regional and local transport - and this makes their survey as much about governance and good business as about simple consumption.

On first seeing the list, the obvious observation is that Nordic capital cities take three of the top four places and these are cities with strong, left-of-centre or socialist governments at local and national level.

The entry for Copenhagen points out the importance for the city of its sense of pride in social cohesion and that has certainly been important as the city went into lockdown.

Most parts of the city have easy access to green space and to the clean waters of the harbour for exercise, swimming, a huge range of outdoor sports and for leisure and through the pandemic these public outdoor areas have been crucial as safe outdoor areas where anyone and everyone can exercise and socialise.

In their short assessment Monocle spotlights the new Metro ring that has “made it easier to access all parts of the city, and the Refshaleøen district is particularly appealing these days due to the presence of of the Copenhagen Contemporary art museum and an eclectic range of dining options."

Quality of Life Special Edition
July/August 2021 issue 145
Monocle

 
 
 

Monocle top 20
Liveable Cities

① Copenhagen
② Zurich
③ Helsinki
④ Stockholm
⑤ Tokyo
⑥ Vienna
⑦ Lisbon
⑧ Auckland
⑨ Taipei
⑩ Sydney
⑪ Seoul
⑫ Vancouver
⑬ Munich
⑭ Berlin
⑮ Amsterdam
⑯ Madrid
⑰ Melbourne
⑱ Kyoto
⑲ Brisbane
⑳ Los Angeles

 

Loppemarkeder, Gammel Strand / the antique market on Gammel Strand

/

The flea market or antique market on Gammel Strand has been described as both “the most exclusive” and “the most beautiful” antique market in Copenhagen.

With first extensive construction work for the new Metro Station at Gammel Strand and then the rebuilding of the quay along the canal here and the resurfacing of the area with new cobbles, the market was moved across to the other side of the canal to the area at the front of Thorvaldsens Museum.

After several years the move seemed permanent and there were rumours that much of the space on the Gammel Strand side would now be needed for bike racks and that the City Council would no longer licence the antique stalls but now the market has been allowed to return to the sunny side of the canal and the stalls will be open here on Saturdays and Sundays through to October.

L1198266.JPG

Giv os i dag vort daglige brød / Give us this day our daily bread

/
L1187844.JPG

Maybe it should be give us this day our daily bread and cake …. sesame seed bread and a fig snail for my lunch from Hart Bageri

As the population of Copenhagen grew rapidly, and as the city expanded In the late 19th century and in the early decades of the last century, with new areas of housing built outside the old city defences, each new neighbourhood had a new church and a new school.

But now? Now it would seem that every inner district has to have its own artisan baker.

That’s not a dig to write this off as simply the latest hipster trend but - just the opposite - because it is a serious observation about an important change that says much about day-to-day life in Copenhagen.

This is about bread baked by craftsmen and not about fashion or about food fads. It’s about expertise and about enthusiasm for good food baked by men and women who really know about bread. It’s about appreciating traditional and local and regional styles of baking and it's about bakers finding good flour from local sources and it’s all about bread that has amazing and distinct flavours.

And no, I’m not turning this into a food blog but I am trying to make an important point.

For a thousand years Copenhagen has been a city of merchants and craftsmen who have succeeded because they know exactly what they are doing and why. And yes, these new bread makers should be seen as craftsmen …. craftsmen who have skill and who understand their market and produce incredibly good food.

With the lockdown and with restrictions because of the pandemic, people now have to queue along the pavement outside shops, including the bakers, but, despite the cold weather through the Spring, the lines have been long and I've noticed - as people walk down the line or stand in line - there are nods of acknowledgement to friends and neighbours from nearby apartment buildings so it is obvious that these bakers are establishing a local customer base with strong neighbourhood loyalties.

Perhaps, the only exception is Lille Bageri out on Refshaleøen … not because they don't have loyal customers but simply because there are few houses nearby and it is a bike ride away for most of their customers. Even so, or maybe because of that, it’s a place, to meet friends and have a coffee and cakes or a good lunch … and, of course, a place to buy incredibly good bread.

Now this really is beginning to sound like a food review or an advert so I should probably point out that this blog does not have paid content …. It's written simply because of genuine appreciation for good food made by people who know what they are doing.

 Bageriet Brød, Enghave Plads 7

A bakery and cake shop and with a good general drink and deli selection opened by Kihoskh store on Sønder Boulevard.

The completion of the new metro station here a couple of years ago has transformed the square. There is good planting and welcoming seating so people meet up here and traffic - apart from bikes - no longer crosses in front of the bakery.

The photo above of the long queue waiting outside, because of the pandemic restrictions, is Bageriet Brød and it shows just how popular the bakery is. Their Instagram site shows their wide selection of cakes.

Bageriet Brød

 

Hart Bageri, Gammel Kongevej 109 and Gallionsvej 41 ✽

Richard Hart is from England but has worked as a chef and baker in California and, more recently, at Noma, here in Copenhagen.

His first bakery shop was opened on Gammel Kongevej … a main shopping street that runs out from the centre of the city to Frederiksberg. The pavement there is narrow and there is heavy traffic along the road so it is not possible to have chairs and tables outside but there are stools and counters inside where you can have a coffee and a cake.

A second bakery shop opened in Christianshavn, on Strandvej, so very close to the inner harbour bridge and with much more space there are tables and benches outside although the shop itself is relatively small so bread is sold here but not cakes.

Hart Bageri

✽ update 15 November 2021:
Hart Brød + Bar in Christianshavn has closed and Hart Bageri moved on 13 November 2021 to a new shop on Holmen on Gallionsvej so the map above and this entry have been updated.

The new bread and cake shop on Holmen is in an old timber building that is just beyond the recently-restored Arsenal buildings and immediately before the old mast sheds.

There will be a longer post as soon as possible.

 

lille bakery, Refshalevej 213B

The bakery is in what was drawing offices of the old ship yard. It is a bit of a hike if you don’t have a bike but it is at the end of the bus route so there is really no excuse.

It’s close to Copenhagen Contemporary - the modern art gallery - and the B&W furniture market and there are tables outside so a visit to the bakery can all be part of a longer trip out to Refshaleøen.

They describe themselves as an eatery as well as a bakery so you can get good lunches here and coffee and cakes as well as the excellent bread.

lille bakery


lille bakery


Andersen & Maillard, Nørrebrogade 62 and Göteborg Plads 19 

Opened by the chef Milton Abel who worked in California and then at Noma and Amass in Copenhagen. His bakery and coffee shop on Nørrebrogade is just before the cemetery of Assistens Kirkegård - so actually not that far out of the centre of the city - and, although the road is busy, there are chairs and tables out on the pavement as well as a seating area inside.

It’s a really good coffee shop so again it is easy to get into a routine of stopping for a coffee and cake on the daily trip out to buy a loaf.

Their second shop out at Nordhavn has been packed out every time I’ve been. It’s an area of expensive new housing but there is also a large new cinema here and the very popular south-facing quay, where you can swim and sunbathe, is just a block away.

They combine a coffee roastery and bakers and they deliver. Lethal ….. but must say, I like their delivery vans.


Andersen & Maillard

 

Collective Bakery, Nørrebrogade 176

This is the same team as Coffee Collective and their first coffee shop in Jægersborggade is just a couple of blocks away from this new bakery.

Their flour is sourced in Denmark, coming from Kragegården on the island Fyn and Kornby Mølle just north of Copenhagen.

The loaf I bought to try at home was the rye bread with a heavy seed content. It’s a meal in itself but terrific with cheese and pretty good with orange marmalade for breakfast. I usually have the clementine marmalade from Irma that has a distinctly peppery edge but, never-the-less, I guess that proves to Danish friends that I’m still a bit of a food philistine.

Collective Bakery

 

note:
Just to prove that, despite getting carried away by the food, this is still a design blog ….. the building is called Zøllnerhus and is a good example of a functionalist apartment building. It was designed by Charles Schou and Erik Kragh and was completed in 1935

Galst Bageri, Per Henrik Lings Allé 10

This has to be the bakers with the most unusual location because it is tucked away between the old sports stadium in Østerbro and the national football stadium and it seems to share it’s entrance with some of the changing rooms.

The people here are incredibly friendly and helpful and they have already attracted a huge number of loyal customers so again there can be lines of people waiting outside (because of pandemic restrictions) but no one seems to mind.

The sour dough loaves seem huge but even so they get eaten at an amazing speed …. probably because again the crust has an incredible flavour.

Not as wide a selection of cakes as the other bakers but for me possibly the best cardamom buns.


Galst Bageri

 

Juno the bakery, Århusgade 48

Opened by Emil Glaser who was a chef at Noma for six years before setting up as an independent baker.

This has to be the most stylish of the bakers … not least because the interior was designed by Frama.

The shop is on a corner and the frontage is set back at 45 degrees so there is a triangular garden here with outdoor seating. It is incredibly popular and there can be long lines of people waiting, particularly at weekends, but it is clear that everyone knows that it is worth the wait.

I’m working my way through their cakes and so far have not been disappointed by anything. The cakes are baked here in the kitchen that runs back down the side street.

The bread, photographed and then sampled back at home, might look overcooked if not burnt but it had an absolutely amazing flavour. A strongly flavoured and well-cooked crust is a key quality of all these sour dough loaves.


Juno the bakery

None of this, he adds quickly, is to say that other bakery shops in the city are not good.

When I lived near Kastellet my nearest baker was Emmrys on the corner of Sankt Pauls Gade and Store Kongensgade. It is one of a chain of shops but good for bread and good for a cake for lunch or for a cake with a coffee away from the desk and with a chance to sit and read a magazine but it was also a place to stock up with muesli and good coffee beans for breakfast or with biscuits if friends were coming round to the apartment for coffee.

I've not even mentioned Lagkagehuset  - now a big player with some 114 branches - or Meyers. Both are excellent - not just for bread but for cakes.

I've also posted on this blog about Wulff & Kunstali … cafes with good bakers attached or is it bakers with good cafes attached? They also have really good bread and cakes but this post has been about small independent bakers with a single shop or, at most, have two shops.

Having said all this, my favourite bakery is still Det Rene Brød on Rosenvængets Allé in Østerbro. It's tucked away from the main street and inside it's what I would describe as comfortable rather than stylish. Parents bring their kids in here for a treat after picking them up from school and friends definitely meet up here for a coffee.

Det Rene Brød are well established - they have been in business since 1988 - although they only have two shops so I'm back to the idea that small is good and Det Rene Brød does prove that you don't have to be big to survive.

That's where we get to the bit about artisan bakers in the broader context of the economy and of planning and the role of independent bakers for a good life here in the city.

Planners and developers have to make space for this sort pf business, even in areas of new housing, and that might well mean tax incentives as well as the physical space and foresight where bakers need delivery access and need to start work very, very early.

And, with luck, where the bakers succeed then the butchers and candlestick makers might well follow.

Copenhagen specifically but also smaller cities and towns need thriving independent businesses and, in the broader context of the environment, local production and simplified delivery and distribution can have a smaller impact on the environment.

Watch people coming to these bakeries and you see that they reconnect people with food production because they make people think about how essential foods like loaves of bread are produced.

After all ….. bread is the staff of life.

And no … I’m not actually sure what that means but it sounds good.

Wulff & Kunstali

Det Rene Brød, Rosenvængets Allé in Østerbro

 

the sausage wagons of Copenhagen

/
L1176602.JPG

where Strøget - The Walking Street - crosses Gammel Torv

on the square in front of city hall in 1954

The Pølsevogn or sausage wagons are still a prominent feature on the main squares in the city but they have been around in Copenhagen for longer than many might think. They arrived here exactly 100 years ago …. licences were granted in 1920 but the first sausage stalls or hot dog stands opened on 18th January 1921 when six pølsevogn were set up around the city.

They were incredibly popular - there were 400 in the city by 1950 - and it was not long before they could be found in most cities in the country and pølsevogn were even taken abroad to keep fans supplied for major international sporting events. The number in Copenhagen had dropped to 60 by 2010 and I could not find figures for the current number of licences.

They are not allowed to stay on their pitch overnight in Copenhagen so some are towed away by car each evening although the endearing wagons have a large battery - usually driving a single front wheel - and with a long handle they hum along behind the sausage seller like a giant mechanical dog that follows the owner to the pitch in the morning and then heads for home in the evening.

The first carts had a large copper boiler to warm up the various types of sausage sold.

It’s a bit like the smell of fresh coffee or the smell of toast …. the smell of the sausages is hard to resist.

 
L1176481.JPG

out near the church of St Alban

L1176575.JPG

Kongens Nytorv

 

How, oh how, can you sell open sandwiches in the street?

I came across this photograph in the city archive on line when I was looking for something else and could not resist posting it here. For a start it is an amazing social document re the way men dressed.

That coat and the hat of the customer are amazingly elegant and, even now, I still prefer to wear trousers with turn ups - what I think Americans call a cuff - but also the rubber cloth coat of the boy and his cap and the fact he is wearing a tie is quite something and I like the contrast with the old man who looks as if he is dreaming of being able to afford a sandwich.

But the real question it raises for me is how smørrebrød - a Danish open sandwich - can be wrapped in paper let alone eaten on the move. I thought one advantage with the open sandwich, with all it's additions and layers, is that it makes people take a break …. makes them sit down to do the sandwich justice.

SMØRREBRØD.jpeg
 

coffee vans in the city

L1176121.JPG
L1176283.JPG

a cold Sunday on the quay of the harbour in January

There seem to be more and more of these small electric coffee stalls and food delivery vehicles around the city and they seem like a simple and safe place to get a coffee while so many places are closed because of the pandemic.

I won't complain because, despite attempts to cut down my caffeine intake, I still need inflight refuelling.

a sunny Saturday in January on Enghave Plads

L1176383.JPG

waiting outside the bakery in Nordhavn

 

fresh herbs from Irma

/

The large Irma food store alongside the railway station at Østerport in Copenhagen is now selling herbs that are grown in the store and they are growing in full view in the middle of the vegetable section immediately inside the entrance.

There is a large double cabinet with a hefty black frame but with glass on the sides and in both the doors. It looks a bit like the normal cool cabinets used now in many food stores to keep salad stuff fresh although here there are four shelves in each half and on each shelf a turntable but instead of a flat platter these turntables have grooves or channels that spiral out from the centre.

Herbs are sown in a growing medium in a small plastic pot …. cone-shaped and just over 30mm high and internally just 25mm across internally at the top and with a small lip that holds the 'pot' in its place on the turntable. There is no bottom to the cone …. that's where the roots grow out.

In the pots at the centre of the turntable there are just a few shoots breaking out but as they are turned under lights they move outwards and grow as they go so the finished plants are harvested from the edge. The full growth period is three weeks and the cabinets are planted half a week apart to provide a continual harvest.

Plants taken from the outer rim are put in a waxed brown-paper cone with labelling and set out for sale on shelves across the front of the unit.

At the moment the store is growing Greek basil, Italian basil, coriander and parsley.

The herbs are about as clean as any natural product can be; there are no synthetic pesticides and the system is said to use 95% less water than growing the herbs in a glass house and there should be little or no waste …. both for the store who can judge uptake or for the customer.

The whole system comes from the German company Infarm.

It was launched officially on the 21 November 2019 by the Danish Food Minister Mogens Jensen.

oh ….. and that plug of basil in the last photo …. enough to go with fresh pasta and pine nuts that night and a tomato salad the night after..

This system is new to Denmark - the unit at the Irma store is the first in the country - but should be seen within a much wider story of the Danish approach to public transport, to shopping and to life style.

One noticeable difference here, when I moved to Copenhagen from the UK was not simply the number of people using bikes to get to and from work but that many people appear to do part of the journey by train or metro and part by bike … so either cycle to the nearest station and leave the bike there, going into the centre by public transport, or take the bike on the train to the nearest station to work and then cycle from there to the office or some leave the bike at the city-centre station overnight so it's there when they commute back into the city the next day. Complicated? No just the way it's done. One consequence is that many more Danes seem to do their shopping on the way home at night so it's a bag's worth or enough to fill a bike basket so food for that night and whatever else might be needed.

That has an impact on how food is sold …. fresh food here is generally to be eaten that day or the next so is ready whereas in the UK I tended to buy fruit or vegetables that would ripen later in the week and were to be eaten before the next big shop.

This difference is clearly reflected in the arrangement of the Irma store at Østerport. The station has just been rebuilt and a major new metro station is now up and running alongside the old station for suburban trains so it is clear that Østerport will now be a major interchange for people travelling in and out of the city from the north who will now change here from train to metro rather than going on to Nørreport station or to the central station as before.

Irma is connected directly to the main upper concourse of the station and has been completely remodelled and enlarged so it is in exactly the right place to sell fresh food and fresh Irma-grown herbs to any traveller heading in to work or heading back home.

oh ….. and that plug of basil in the bottom photo …. was enough to go with fresh pasta and pine nuts that night and a tomato salad the night after.

Irma - Østerport

infarm

where do all the tourists go?

/

Over the last year or so, I have detected a change of attitude about tourism in the city. 

Tourists and visitors to the city, coming for business or for conferences and events, are still an important source of revenue - many in the city are employed in holiday industries, in the hotels, in restaurants and of course shops rely, to some extent, on tourists shopping - but there have been articles in newspapers recently that have stared to question the benefits of tourism and look at the benefits weighed against the cost. 

Pressures from the numbers of tourists visiting Copenhagen are not yet as marked as the more obvious and better publicised problems in cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona or Venice but certainly people have started to question the impact from Airbnb - particularly where complete apartments are now let through much of the year so this has begun to distort the long-term rental market - and some journalists have asked questions about the number of large cruise ships that stop here and about the impact they have through pollution. But the main criticism is that disproportionate numbers of visitors in the city focus their time on remarkably few sites so crowds of tourists are concentrated in areas like Strøget - the Walking Street - Nyhavn, parts of Christianshavn and along the harbour around the Little Mermaid and these parts of the city can be unpleasantly crowded, not just for local people but actually for visitors as well.

There is also a problem with tour buses that want to drop passengers close to main sites but then park waiting for their passengers to return either blocking the bus stops for public transport or by blocking the front of buildings the visitors actually want to see. Recently, I wanted to take a photograph of the front of the Royal Theatre on Kongens Nytorv for a post here but over three days there were at least two tourist buses parked across the front each time I went past.

 
 

By coincidence, thinking about this post, I came across an article on line by Colin Marshall on the Open Culture site from June of this year. He wrote there about 136 maps of major cities across the world produced for a project called Locals and Tourists and published in a larger project The Geotaggers’ World Atlas, by Eric Fisher who has used MapBox, Twitter and data from Gnip to plot photographs taken of cities that have been uploaded to the internet. 

The central area of the Copenhagen map is reproduced here with red indicating photographs that appear to have been taken by tourists while blue are images that are probably by local people - determined primarily because they are Tweeting from the same location for at least a month - and yellow could be either.

When data is presented in this way, it is easy to see the densely-packed areas where most photographs were taken with Nyhavn - the long rectangle at the centre of the map that extends up to large blob that marks Kongens Nytorv - the large public square at the city end of the New Harbour - and just above that there is the distinct shape of the royal palace with the circle of the main square and long narrow strips running out to the right to the harbour in one direction and to the Marble Church in the other. The large public square in front of city hall and, nearby, Tivoli are the densely-packed but slightly more scattered areas of red on the left side of the city centre.

Roads can be picked out clearly and give a framework for location and one interesting feature of the complete map, right, that shows the wider area around the city, is the long narrow line of yellow that is the railway bridge across to Malmö with good and photogenic views of the sound.

The data was collected in 2013 but more recent published data from 2017 corroborates the general conclusions. In that year, there were around 7 million visitors to the city and more than 60% included Nyhavn in their trip so, by rough calculation, that suggests that the number of visitors walking up and down Nyhavn in a year was equal, approximately, to the total population of the country.

With the opening of a new bridge from the end of Nyhavn for cyclists and pedestrians to cross the harbour to Christianshavn, Nyhavn has become not just a destination but also a major route. Shops close to the harbour on the west side of Nyhavn have seen a marked and welcome increase in business and for several shops it has meant the difference between declining trade and the possibility of a failing business before the bridge opened and surviving now.

But an article in Politiken by Søren Astrup in September 2017 pointed out that, even at that early stage, not long after the bridge opened, there was an obvious problem with the possibility for accidents as tourists, looking at maps or at the view or busy chatting came into contact with fast moving bike traffic. Planners are responsible for road markings and barriers and some changes have been made, particularly at the bottom of the bridge on the city side, but tourists also have a responsibility and have to learn to be more aware.

This is particularly true of the green man system at traffic lights that in too many cities seem to be treated as respect-it-or-ingnore-it advice rather than as an instruction but, because biking is taken seriously here, many cyclists are heading to or from work, can be in a hurry, and many cycle long distances so when you get up momentum (speed) you do not appreciate a tourist sauntering into the bike lane to take a better photo or stepping out onto a crossing because it sounds clear …. ie they can’t hear a car so step out without looking.

The real problem in Nyhavn is people taking photographs and particularly selfies. Most tourists would say well that is pretty harmless and surely it doesn’t hurt locals to wait just a few seconds while they get that perfect shot. 

But I’m much less tolerant of selfies now I have actually moved to an apartment on Nyhavn.

I have deliberately changed my behaviour to walk down the shady side when possible, although I live on the sunny side, simply because there are slightly less people taking photos. It may be your once in a life time shot but for me, heading to the metro, it may well be the ninth or tenth time I’ve had to walk out into the road in just over 100 metres to get around a selfish-selfie taker. 

Do people taking selfies realise just how much space they take up on a narrow or crowded path with or without a selfie stick? 

 
 

A few weeks back I was heading up towards Kongens Nytorv on the Charlottenborg side and walking along the pavement against the water. I noticed a woman standing a short distance ahead with her back against the buildings and only noticed her because of the odd pose - even for someone taking a photo with a phone. The phone was held in both hands at arms length with her arms straight out in front so I guess she was long sighted. As I got nearer and, presumably, as she focused on the phone screen or composed the view, she set off straight across the bike lane - cutting between bikes heading out of the city without looking - and walked straight across the road between the moving cars and straight across the bike lane on the water side with bikes heading fast into the city but without taking her eyes off the screen and ended up, with arms still straight out, rigid, taking up the full width of the pavement immediately in front of me. And I mean immediately in front. Inches away rather than feet away. I was walking quite quickly but she moved at a surprising speed so if I had been wearing rubber-sole shoes there would have been black burn marks on the pavement because I had to stop that quickly to stop from walking straight into her. She gave me a withering look - presumably for standing too close and for distracting her - before turning her head back to the outstretched phone and to the perfect photo she wanted to take. I had to step out into the bike lane - after checking - to get round her. 

When I’m trying to get somewhere it’s bloody annoying although looking out of my apartment it’s more entertaining and a mind-boggling view of weird human behaviour. In the last couple of weeks alone I watched someone who looked like a Japanese tourist who set up his camera on the top of his case with wheels and then made endless trips between the edge of the harbour and his case to take shot after shot after shot until he got just the right angle of his face against the buildings opposite and there was a curious girl who did the splits along the raised timber that marks the edge of the quay for her photo although now, I appreciate, that the timber is, remarkably, like the bar in women’s gymnastics although balancing three metres above the water seemed a little precarious even if, admittedly, it made for an unusual photo. There was also a young couple I took to be Chinese with him in a smart suit and her in an elaborate wedding dress …. Cinderella before midnight meets Marie Antoinette … although they were not strictly taking selfies as they had a photographer with them and she insisted in setting up her camera on a tripod in the middle of the road - again to get what they thought was the perfect photo. 

Another trend I’ve spotted is the fake selfie … the girl (usually a girl and usually mid teens) with a striking outfit and a mate or sometimes someone who is obviously the doting mum there to take the perfect shot. The common pose seems to start by dropping the head forward and then doing a great swinging arc to take all the hair in a great circular sweep so it ends up artfully draped down one side of the face but clear of the eyes and the favourite stance seems to be with body angled to face one side or the other, so across the view line from the camera, but looking slightly over the shoulder towards the camera. Again I’m amazed just how many takes and how much discussion it takes to get that perfect spontaneous shot.

 

Oh and while I’m being grumpy …. the other thing I really really don’t understand is this fad for fixing padlocks to bridges. The first person to do it was being original and presumably romantic if that first lock on that first bridge marked somewhere special where something significant happened … like proposing or promising eternal love and devotion. Now it’s locks on locks on locks.

I’m curious …. do people arrive with pockets full of locks or do they buy them here and exactly how much does it cost the city or the port authority to cut them off at increasingly regular intervals? And what do people do with all those keys?

 

a call to improve life in Copenhagen

/


At this time of year, it's not easy to remember that Copenhagen is not just a city of tourists and the shop window for Danish design and architecture but is a large and complex city with a diverse population that has the social problems and the disparities of wealth and all the environmental challenges faced by any city.

With the approach of national elections in Denmark, a recent article in the newspaper Politiken, charged the current government with failing to create the proper framework of a policy for Copenhagen.

This was an opinion piece by three leading politicians from the city council …. Franciska Rosenkilde, Chair of Culture and Leisure; Sisse Marie Welling, Chair of the Health and Care Committee and Karina Vestergaard Madsen, acting Chair of the Technical and Environment Committee.

The government published a report for the capital region in January this year but this article is critical - suggesting that the report failed to address the biggest challenges Copenhagen faces and they make six demands for specific policies to "create a more sustainable Copenhagen with proper welfare."  

 

  1. They want a new government to remove the economic straightjacket with an appeal for an increase in funding for the provision of social services and increases in funding for cultural and recreational facilities.

  2. They suggest road pricing and the establishment of green zones are introduced to tackle rising levels of traffic pollution.

  3. The proportion of social housing should be increased by implementing a target for 25% subsidised housing throughout the city and the government should initiate policies to reduce the number of empty properties in the city calculated to be 3,000 homes

  4. A new government should legalise the use of cannabis. The argument here is that it would tackle a serious problem because gangs control the current cannabis supply that increases crime and, in the worst situations, has seen a rise in the use of guns on the streets that are used to settle disputes or establish control of the trade.

  5. They suggest a reorganisation of employment legislation

  6. They call for moves to "Stop Blackstone" … a foreign equity fund that has invested heavily in the Copenhagen housing market.


 

Politiken 31 May 2019

 

shopping in Jægersborggade

/

for some events vehicles are cleared from the street

 
 

In the middle of December The Guardian newspaper published an article that listed ten "cool shopping districts around the world". These were "readers tips" so not exactly a methodical survey but nevertheless interesting. Included in the list was Jægersborggade in Copenhagen.

In the UK there is considerable concern about the decline of high streets or main shopping streets in many towns where an increasing proportion of shops are empty or now used by the charity sector but this does not seem to be as obvious a problem in the major Danish cities … in Copenhagen businesses come and go but there are few abandoned shops.

The success of Jægersborggade as a shopping street suggests clear reasons for the difference between the two countries. Most of the shops are independent but generally, throughout Denmark, there seem to be more small independent companies and local brands so if one fails or moves on to another building then the impact is not as obvious. In the UK, even in small towns there are more national or at least large-scale regional brands so if a retail company fails then that has a wider and obvious impact.

Having lived in Denmark for nearly five years it also appears to me that the pattern of shopping is different. In Copenhagen there is a large shopping area in the centre of the city with three long streets of shops, two of which are pedestrianised, and with department stores and international brands along with Danish companies but there is also a strong tradition in the city of shopping in each area or district … so buying food on the journey to or more probably on the journey back from work but also there is regular use of shops and cafes in the afternoon when parents pick up children from school.

Jægersborggade is very popular at weekends but with a large number of cafes and small restaurants it is also lively in the evening but even during the day it is rarely quiet.

It's said that location is everything.

Jægersborggade is just over 2 kilometres out from the centre of the city … far enough out to have it's own identity and far enough but not too far so it is also a nice destination - a short walk or a short bike ride for a morning or an afternoon.

As in so many cities, in Copenhagen main roads radiate out from the centre. Jægersborggade is between and runs parallel to two of these main roads with Nørrebogade less than 500 metres to the east and Ågade just over 500 metres to the west. This is important in that Jægersborggade is not on a main traffic route but also, although the shops are - how to put this in socially aware Denmark - more middle class and more expensive, this is in part possible because for all the people living in the apartment buildings along the street and nearby, this is not their only shopping street … there is a launderette but apart from that the street can have more expensive and more specialist shops because supermarkets and so on are near on main roads just three or four blocks away.

approaching the street along the main pathway through the cemetery of Assistens Kirkegård

Jægersborggade from the north

typical apartment buildings along the street

select an image to open in slide show

 

More important, Jægersborggade is not actually a through road or a cut through for traffic … at the city end is a main cross street Jagtvej which is a relatively busy section of an inner ring road but Jægersborggade is one way, with traffic only allowed to drive in the direction of the city so there are no cars turning in from the main road and at the end furthest away from the city is a park.

The street is 330 metres long and around 14 metres or about 45 ft wide and with buildings of six storeys along each side it has a distinctly urban feel but it is narrow enough so you can see across to what is happening on the other side and cross backwards and forwards without having to worry too much about moving traffic. Cars parked on both sides is not ideal but the pavements are relatively wide - not far off four metres - so there is space for people to stop and window shop without blocking the path and many of the cafés have seats and tables outside.

This part of the city dates from around 1900 and it is a street of traditional apartment buildings so above each shop there are five or six relatively large and now highly sought-after apartments. Most of these buildings are also of the traditional form with the apartment buildings built with a central doorway from the street leading to a lobby and central staircase with an apartment on each side at each landing. That means that the street has a large number of people actually living here and they come and go through the front doors so the street feels occupied and busy.

It is difficult to be certain without looking through historic plans and photographs but many of the shops appear to have been shops from the start although some of the ground-floor spaces are still bike stores and service rooms for the apartments. All these ground-floor spaces are relatively low and are actually down from the street level so there are two or three steps down into the shops. In many parts of the city there are more steps, sometimes a steep flight of six or seven steps, so there the commercial spaces are half below ground and half above.

This is a distinct Copenhagen form of apartment building and, curiously, that also contributes to its current success as a shopping street. The shop units are narrow - some frontages little more than 4 metres wide with just a doorway from the street and a single narrow window - most just two rooms deep and are relatively low so they are ideal for a small business but not so good for a national or international company that so often has clear prescriptions for size, appearance and arrangement for retail units in their global brands.

 

many of the shops combine what they make or produce with coffee and other food and drink and in some unusual combinations … here beer and vinyl - as in music LPs - and shoes with coffee

The architecture is typical of the period with strong features including heavy rustication of some lower levels, classical style architraves around doors and windows, strong emphasis on windows to staircases and cornices and plat bands. This has been enhanced with strong and bold colours and there is good control and good design for shop signs. Some shops have modern plastic-framed windows and doors but a good number retain original fittings. Developers in 1900 acquired plots so there are various styles along the street and many of the apartment buildings were built in pairs creating an interesting vertical rhythm so the pattern will be shop with apartments above, steps up to door with staircase, shop with apartments, shop with apartments, step up to door with staircase, shop with apartments above.

The street is also interesting because it is not long continuous rows on both sides … on the west side there are a number of short, narrow, pedestrian cross streets running through to the parallel road and on the east side - opposite these cross streets - short open courtyards running back into the block.

With so many apartments and so many sought-after apartments, this is a family-friendly area so not just a street for young, single, affluent professionals to come to from elsewhere in the city but many young families live in the street or in adjoining streets. There are good small local schools and at the end of the street away from the city is Nørrebroparken with superb play equipment so this is a dynamic residential area.

Athe other end of the street to the park, at the city end of the street, and just across Jagtvej, is Assistens Kirkegård, a large and famous city cemetery - Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard are buried here.

Now to English readers it will seem perverse or even downright weird to suggest that a shopping street could be popular and successful because it is close to a cemetery but in Copenhagen cemeteries are well kept and important and very beautiful public spaces with mature trees, grass areas and pathways where people walk and sit on benches and appreciate the trees and the plants and some even look at the memorials. If you walk or even if you are on a bike and come from the city centre then you can come straight up the broad central avenue of the cemetery and at the top are large gates, and then pedestrian crossings to left and right to get over Jagtvej and there, facing you, on the other side is the start of Jægersborggade.

Believe me, it makes for a pleasant afternoon to saunter through the grave yard, walk up and down the street, have a coffee at one of the places with tables outside - to watch the world, or at least a good chunk of Copenhagen life, walk past - or maybe have a beer at the bar of Mikkeller & Friends just round the corner .

 

the play area in Nørrebroparken at the top end of the street

 

select any image to open a larger version in a slide show

 

There are serious points to be made here about planning for shopping in the city.

For a start, as a shopping street, Jægersborggade is certainly very pleasant but it is not unique in Copenhagen. Other streets are different in their layout and their architectural style but are equally good destinations with their own interesting independent craft shops, gift shops, small fashion shops, coffee shops and cafes and restaurants. These would include:

  • what is called the French Quarter around Værnedamsvej, at the city end of Frederiksberg Allé

  • Sønder Boulevard, a wide street beyond the meat market with a central strip of park is a popular destination on a summer afternoon. This part of the city will continue to improve with the opening of new metro stations

  • nearby Istedgade … although it has relatively heavy car traffic, once you get away from the part close to the central station, has good design and second-hand shops and cafés and bars and the end away from the city will change as work on a new metro station at Enghave Plads is completed and the square is replanted

  • Islands Brygge, in streets back from the harbour, has small cafes and craft shops

  • in the north part of the city, the streets and squares in Østebro, east of Trianglen, that again have more and more good bakers and specialist food shops and craft galleries

And there are more. This is not simply saying how wonderful Copenhagen is - although obviously it is - but the point here is that all round the city there are small local shopping streets that are lively and extremely pleasant.

In part that is because the city planners have a policy that no area should drop behind, in terms of public facilities or quality of hard landscaping or public transport. If there was just Jægersborggade it would quickly become swamped by it's own success so the aim has to be to get a well-spread patchwork of traditional shopping with supermarkets and so on and then, nearby, destination streets of specialist shops with places to eat and have coffee.

Of course, there are critics of all this in the city because it is clearly a form of gentrification and older residents in older working-class areas do feel that their housing, because it was cheaper than housing in existing more middle-class districts, is being colonised and some do feel they are being driven out by relatively young families and, ok, relatively affluent and relatively trendy professionals even if it brings life and businesses to the area.

This is what is now by some called placemaking and it is difficult for planners to get the balance right. For a start planners cannot vet who takes on the lease for a shop although there are controls on certain types of use.

These are also changes driven by social factors that cannot be controlled by planners … significant changes to how and when and why people shop. This change in shopping patterns was identified by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore around 20 years ago in an article Welcome to the Experience Economy in the Harvard Business Review where they talked about an evolution from shopping for consumer goods that was changing to people wanting an increasing number of services in shopping areas, from advice to learning and health, and that moving towards a search for 'experiences' so for the high street or shopping area people want opportunities for fitness, entertainment and eating out. They talk about staging experiences that sell and that would certainly be one way of looking at the success of Jægersborggade.

Curiously, as a final thought, shopping centres - of the covered indoor arcade type - further out of the town centre - usually with parking for cars to  draw in people - are still popular and successful in Copenhagen although it is interesting to see that one of the older shopping centres - Fisketorvet - that opened in the south harbour area in 2000 is about to be extensively remodelled. It is of a fairly standard form, inward looking, with a bright and light interior on two levels and with food courts and a cinema but the outside is grim and now very dated in its style so the plan is to build new outward-facing shops around the outside that will integrate the shopping area into a rapidly growing district in the south harbour with many new apartment buildings.

 

Torvehallerne, Israels Plads

/
 

Just a block to the west of Norreport metro and railway station is Israels Plads - a large square that was laid out in the late 19th century once building immediately outside the defensive walls of the city was allowed.

Across the north side of the square is Frederiksborggade, a busy road of shops and apartments leading out to the lakes and the bridge to Nørrebro. There are large and quite grand apartment buildings on the two long sides of square but the south end is open to Ørstedsparken - a green space with mature trees and a large lake that remains from a section of the moat that ran around the outer side of the city defences. 

There was a greengrocers’ market on the square from 1889 until 1958 when a large new vegetable market opened at Valby.

As part of a major upgrading of the area, two new food halls designed by Peter Hagens and between an area of outside market opened in September 2011 at the north end of the square. The buildings have simple thin elegant framing supporting shallow pitched roofs and are completely glazed creating good large light spaces that are divided into aisles lined with stalls like many traditional indoor markets.

The food halls are now well established and extremely popular with stalls outside for vegetables and flowers and stalls inside for bread, coffee, wine, fresh meat, cheese and of course fish, along with stalls for cake and drinks. 

Cafes and restaurants in the halls and around the square are particularly busy for lunch and in the evenings when people stop here for a drink on the way home from work and the food halls are now a popular destination for tourists.