the city hall and the square in 1930

Rådhuspladsen, the square in front of the city hall in Copenhagen, is at the west end of the historic centre, and is one of the largest and most important and most used public spaces in the city.

It was laid out after the old defences of the city - high banks, wide water-filled outer ditches and fortified gatehouses - were dismantled in the second half of the 19th century. The gates were demolished in 1857 and almost immediately new streets and apartment buildings were laid out between the defences and a line of lakes to the north and west and large outer suburbs beyond the lakes, grew quickly to accommodate a rapidly expanding population.

The line of the outer ditches became, in sections, new parks and major civic buildings were constructed including museums and galleries.

A section of defences to the south of the old west gate, running down to the harbour, was the last part of the defences to be removed around 1885 and Rådhuspladsen - City Hall Square - was laid out. Work on building a new city hall continued through the 1890s.

There had been a large but long and narrow space inside the west gate that was a hay market and this was incorporated into the new and much larger square. The city hall was across the south side of the new square with a wide new boulevard heading out to the west from the site of the old gate - now Vesterbrogade - with a wide boulevard running across, beyond the line of the old bank, and now forming the west side of the square.

Buildings on the east side of the square follow the line of old building plots that were originally inside the defences and looked out towards the inner side of the high embankment. This explains the distinct changes of alignment of the street fronts of buildings along the east side of Vester Voldgade that follows the line of the road that originally ran round the city immediately inside the defences.