Kungsholmen’s district area, Stockholm, Sweden

Kungsholmen is a district area in Stockholm’s inner city that consists of the island of Kungsholmen and the Essinge Islands, ie the districts of Kungsholmen, Stadshagen, Kristineberg, Fredhäll, Marieberg, Lilla Essingen and Stora Essingen.

Stockholm’s inner city, is the central part of Stockholm municipality as opposed to the Outer city, which consists of Västerort and Söderort. Within Stockholm’s inner city, and especially in Stockholm’s city on lower Norrmalm and in the Old Town, is home to most of Sweden’s parliamentary and political institutions, most of Stockholm’s historic buildings of dignity and a significant representation of the country’s financial and banking activities.

The spread of urban development within the city of Stockholm in 1913, where the area largely corresponds to the broader significance of the Inner City. The inner city, according to the city’s definition, is mostly bounded by water.

The meaning of the term inner or central city has changed with the city’s expansion over time. During the Middle Ages, it referred to the area inside the city walls on Stadsholmen. During the great power era, it referred to the Old Town (“The city between the bridges”) and the area around Klara Church and Jacob’s Church on today’s Norrmalm and the area around Mary Magdalene’s church on today’s Södermalm. The ore concept that was established then designated areas outside the city center and with rural buildings as ore farms.

During the latter part of the 19th century, the ores were built with multi-family houses in stone and this whole area was then considered part of the inner city, which view still partly survives. Finally, during the 20th century, the city’s expansion spread further – mainly in the south and west – where the demarcation to the inner city was then perceived to consist of the waters, Årstaviken and Tranebergssund, which formed a natural boundary between the older more central city and the newer suburbs.

There is also a narrower demarcation, which coincides with the older concept of the City within the customs and which includes the parts of the Inner City that are within Stockholm’s old city customs. City customs were decided in 1622 for Swedish cities. At that time, high fences with customs stations were built around many cities at the major entrances and exits. Regarding Stockholm, the customs fence was moved during its active time (1622-1810) gradually outwards in step with the city’s expansion. The term City within the customs then usually refers to the customs as they were at the end of this period.

The city within the customs consists of dense buildings and, with few exceptions, classic neighborhoods and straight streets. This area can sometimes also be called the stone city or the neighborhood city. In Hammarby lake town, it was the first time in a long time that the city made an active attempt to build the inner city outside the customs.

Districts in Kungsholmen’s district area:
The Kungsholmen’s district area consists of the districts Fredhäll, Kristineberg, Kungsholmen, Lilla Essingen, Marieberg, Stadshagen and Stora Essingen.

Fredhäll
Fredhäll is a district in Kungsholmen’s district area in Stockholm’s inner city. It is located on the southwestern part of the island Kungsholmen and is known for its bathing cliffs. There is also the open-air bath Fredhällsbadet for winter bathing, the bath is also open in summer. Fredhäll borders in the east towards Marieberg and in the north towards Kristineberg. Fredhäll is limited by the water area Essingefjärden and Mariebergssundet in the south. The district was formed in 1938. Under Fredhäll, through the Fredhäll tunnel, Sweden’s busiest road passes the Essingeleden.

Fredhäll was still during the first decades of the 20th century a rural area with some older wooden buildings. The district is named after the old parsonage Fredhälls gård from 1819 which was located on today’s Fredhällsgatan in the current Tora Dahls park. The farm was demolished when the area was built on in the 1930s. The Fredhälls farm district is still reminiscent of the farm.

Fredhäll and Kristineberg ‘s estates were acquired in 1920 by the city of Stockholm. But as early as 1907, the city planner Per Olof Hallman presented a proposal for regulation of the properties Kristineberg and Fredhäll. His sketch shows a winding road system with a local main street that follows approximately today’s Stagneliusvägen and Nordenflychtsvägen as well as Drottningholmsvägen’s new northern section.

In 1927 and 1929, idea competitions were announced about how the area could be developed with residential buildings for around 35,000 apartments. The first prize was shared by the architects Cyrillus Johansson and Sven Markelius. The goal was to give the new residential buildings “air and light” through open grouping in preserved terrain and nature. It would be the first time in Stockholm that apartment buildings were built in such an open construction method. City plans for Fredhäll were established in 1931 and 1932, respectively, and are signed by Albert Lilienberg.

The expansion of today’s Fredhäll began during the first years of the 1930s and the motto when it was built was “city in park”. The drawings for the modern Fredhäll were drawn up for HSB by architect Sven Wallander, who designed 15–16 meter wide thick houses. Stockholm’s first narrow house was also built here according to drawings by architect Edvin Engström with Stockholm’s Cooperative Housing Association as the client. The point houses characteristic of Fredhäll in the far west were designed in 1935 by Björn Hedvall. High quality architecture is the functionalist portrayed terraced houses on two floors in the block plotbetween Orvar Odds väg and Snoilskyvägen. They are a precursor to terrace houses and were designed by architect Herbert Kockum.

In the new part of the kit, Fredhällsparken was also built according to drawings by the city gardener Osvald Almqvist. The park encloses and penetrates Fredhäll’s buildings and consists of two large areas. In the northern part of the park there is, among other things, a splash pond which since the 1930s has been a popular bathing spot for the smaller children. The southern part of the park includes the cliffs down to Lake Mälaren.

The streets in Fredhäll are named after Swedish authors such as Johan Runius, Fröding, Stagnelius, Orvar Odd, Viktor Rydberg, Atterbom, Snoilsky and Ernst Ahlgren. The newest in this category is Tora Dahl, who in November 2018 had Tora Dahl’s park at Fredhällsgatan named after her.

The two boat clubs that today are located in Fredhällsviken next to Tranebergssund, Kristinebergs Båtklubb and Stockholms Segelklubb have as ancient a history as the area itself. Kristinebergs Båtklubb has been in the same place since 1924 and Stockholms Segelklubb has been in the same place since 1935.

Kristineberg
Kristineberg is a district in Kungsholmen’s district area in Stockholm’s inner city. It is located on the northwestern part of the island Kungsholmen and borders in the east on Stadshagen, in the west on Traneberg, in the south on Fredhäll and in the southeast on Marieberg and on Huvudsta in Solna municipality.

The area formerly belonged to Kristineberg Castle, and was bought by the City of Stockholm in 1920 together with Fredhäll’s farm. But as early as 1907, the city planner Per Olof Hallman presented a proposal for regulation of the properties Kristineberg and Fredhäll. His sketch shows a winding road system and Drottningholmsvägen’s new northern section. Fredhäll is built on, while Kristineberg west of the castle he designed as an undeveloped park.

The eastern part around Thorildsplan was built in the 1920s, while the area west of the castle was built in the 1930s and is in a functional style. There is a sports field, Kristinebergs IP and before there was also a velodrome, the Hornsbergs velodrome. The wings of Kristineberg Castle and the building Kullskolan on the hill closest to the metro have been the municipal Kristinebergsskolan since 2012.

The two boat clubs that today are located in Fredhällsviken next to Tranebergssund, Kristinebergs Båtklubb (KBK) and Stockholms Segelklubb (SSK) have as rich a history as the area itself. Kristinebergs Båtklubb has been in the same place since 1924 and Stockholms Segelklubb has been in the same place since 1935.

In the northern part of the area was formerly Stora Hornsberg’s ore farm, but in the 1890s it had to leave room for industries, including Stora Bryggeriet. At the same time, workers’ housing was erected in the Ängsknarren district, an area that was given the unofficial name Holmia. During the second half of the 1920s, the area was expanded with New Holmia when HSB built some of the earliest condominiums in the city.

SL ‘s bus garage, Hornsbergsdepån in Hornsberg was built 1931-1934 (architect Eskil Sundahl) in a colony area, Iris koloniträdgårdsförening. There are two metro stations in Kristineberg, the stations are called Kristineberg and Thorildsplan, and they are served by the green line and are located between Fridhemsplan and Alvik.

The streets in Kristineberg are named after Swedish authors such as Olof von Dalin, Ola Hansson, Nordenflycht, Levertin, Lidner, Bondeson, Thorild and more. In 2009, Kristineberg’s beach park was created with Krillan’s skate park, a modern skateboard park, made entirely of concrete.

Kungsholmen
Kungsholmen (also called Västermalm) is a district located on the eastern part of the island of Kungsholmen in Stockholm’s inner city. It is part of Kungsholmen’s district area. The Kungsholmen district is delimited to other districts on the island of Kungsholmen along Igeldammsgatan and Mariebergsgatan down to Drottningholmsvägen and then along Fridhemsgatan down to Rålambshovsparken, the block below Hantverkargatan is also called Nedre Kungsholmen.

In 1926, the district of Kungsholmen was formed, covering the entire island. In 1938, the area of the district was reduced when the districts Marieberg, Stadshagen, Fredhäll and Kristineberg were formed. From 1997, the district is part of Kungsholmen’s district area.

The first street network on Kungsholmen in Stockholm was planned by Clas Larsson Fleming in the 1650s, when only the eastern part of Kungsholmen was intended and the main direction of the street network was oriented towards Stockholm Castle.

Kungsholmsgatan got their names that still apply early, Hantverkargatan as early as 1644. Hantverkargatan formed the main axis and had direct contact with Norrmalm via Stadshusbrons’ predecessor, which was an approximately 500 meter long naval bridge. At Gustav III ‘s initiative, the first bridge connection, the Traneberg Bridge, was built in 1787 to what we today call Västerort, to provide a shorter route to Drottningholm Castle. At the same time, the first route was built in an east-west direction over Kungsholmsön with Drottningholmsvägen which was connected to Hantverkargatan.

The next major planning of a new street network was carried out according to Albert Lindhagen’s plans in the 1870s and concerned the central and northwestern parts of Kungsholmen. Lindhagen installed two new main shafts; an east-west from Kungsbron by Klara lake straight through all existing blocks to Kronobergsparken and from there on virgin land to Tranebergsbron. Only the latter section was realized and today forms Drottningholmsvägen. The other main axis was intended to connect the current area around Rålambshovsparken by Riddarfjärden with Ulvsundasjön in the north via a straight 1.8 kilometer long avenue. The section between the intersection with Drottningholmsvägen (today’s Lindhagensplan) was completed and in 1888 was named Lindhagensgatan. It was not until 2006 that they began to fulfill Lindhagen’s original intentions and planted 274 lindens.

Both Fleming’s and Lindhagen’s street regulations from the 17th and 19th centuries still characterize Kungsholmen’s street network. The only major change came with the Essingeleden (E4 / E20) in the 1960s, which stretches over the western part of Kungsholmen from the Fredhäll tunnel in the south to the Karlberg Canal in the north.

Marieberg
Marieberg is a district located on the island of Kungsholmen in Stockholm’s inner city. Marieberg belongs to Kungsholmen’s district area. It is located west of Fridhemsgatan / Riddarfjärden, south of Drottningholmsvägen and east of Essingeleden / Viktor Rydbergs gata. To the south, Marieberg borders Mariebergsfjärden.

Marieberg is named after the ore farm Marieberg, which was built on the shores of Lake Mälaren in the 1640s for Councilor Bengt Skytte. He named the farm after his daughter Maria, wife of the national stable master Gustaf Adam Banér. Of this first settlement, only Triewald’s ore farm is preserved today, which on Petrus Tillaeus’ map from 1733 is designated Mangården and may be identical to Marieberg’s ore farm.

In the area south of Rålambsvägen was Marie’s porcelain (1758-1788), as well as military field Marieberg (including Higher Artillery Grammar School from 1818 to 1869, string Battalion from 1885 to 1891, Field Telegraph Corps from 1908 to 1937, the Signal Regiment from 1937 to 1940, and the Army Signal School (Signs) 1945- 1958). There was also an ammunition factory on Marieberg 1876–1950. Mariebergsstenen reminds of this.

A large part of today’s buildings in Marieberg originated in the early 1960s and go back to a city plan from 1958, signed Göran Sidenbladh. The plan for the area was originally drawn up by architect Åke Ahlström and referred to an interplay of buildings of different high-rise buildings with different functions and different proportions. In the northern part, an industrial area for the graphic industry was established, intended for the newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet’s printing houses, distribution centers and editorial offices. South and west of Dagens Nyheter’s and Svenska Dagbladet’s new buildings, the city plan continued with a plot for a foreign embassy (Russian Embassy in Stockholm), a site for the National Archives’ main building and a block for two tall residential buildings (Dragspelshuset / Erlanderhuset and the so-called Bacon-Hill).

In Marieberg are Rålambshovsparken and Mariebergsparken as well as the northern part of Västerbron. The National Archives, the National Board of Health and Welfare and some of the major newspapers also have premises in Marieberg. However, only the editorial offices remain in Marieberg, the printing presses were moved to Akalla in the 1990s. Marieberg’s cityscape is dominated by the 23-storey DN scraper where the letters at the top of the building constantly change between Dagens Nyheter and Expressen, as well as the slightly lower SvD building in red brick. Near the bridge to Lilla Essingen, Mariebergsbron, is located Villa Adolfsberg. The Russian Embassy is located within a large fenced area. Down by the water, the Sea Scout Corps houses St. Göran in Triewald’s ore farm. To the east is Smedsudden with Smedsuddsbadet.

In the early 2000s, the Teacher Training College had its premises in the former mental hospital Konradsberg and Fredhälls folkskola. Campus Konradsberg was created for the Teacher Training College, which was expanded with several new buildings. Already a few years after moving in, Stockholm University decided that the Teacher Training College would be integrated into the university’s other activities at Frescati and the premises at Campus Konradsberg were therefore gradually vacated. The then owner of the campus area, Akademiska Hus, then chose to develop Campus Konradsberg into a school campus for schools with special competence, among them Manillaskolan and Hällsboskolanand Stockholm International Montessori School.

Lilla Essingen
Lilla Essingen is an island and a district in Stockholm’s inner city located in Lake Mälaren between Kungsholmen and Stora Essingen. Previous names included Lil Äsingen and Lilla Hessingen. Southwest of the island is Essingedjupet, in the east Mariebergsfjärden, in the west Essingefjärden and in the north Mariebergssundet. The island is 23 hectares in size and the highest height is 26 meters above sea level (at Essinge bridge 22). The shoreline is about 2,300 meters and is completely accessible on footpaths. The district bordersFredhäll, Marieberg, Långholmen, Gröndal and Stora Essingen.

Lilla Essingen formerly belonged to Bromma parish in Sollentuna district, but was incorporated into Stockholm in 1916. It continued to belong to Bromma parish until 1 January 1955, when Essinge parish was formed. The Essinge Islands were previously counted as Västerort, but now as Stockholm’s inner city. The island goes by the nickname Lillan or Lilla Nice after the French city of Nice.

During the late 19th century, large parts of the island were owned by the wholesaler Hugo Mattsson. After his death in 1904, the land was sold by his heirs. Both he and his daughters Dagny and Josefina got roads named after them. Land was bought by two large engineering companies: Primusfabriken (1906–1956) which, among other things, manufactured the famous portable kerosene kitchen Primus and Lux factories, later Electrolux (1908-1999) which first manufactured Luxlampan and later vacuum cleaners and white goods. Between 1932 and 1938 there was another industry at Lilla Essingen. At Luxgatan 1-3, eleven copies of the so-called Sparmannjagaren were manufactured by the pilot Edmund Sparmann.

Two boat clubs were also established at Lilla Essingen. The older one is Lilla Essinge Båtklubb which was founded in 1926 by and for Primusfabriken’s workers. The other is Essinge Båtklubb which was formed in 1934. The latter was first located at the current Luxparken but moved in 2006 to its current location in Mariebergssundet.

Lilla Essingen first had a hand-operated tow ferry for crossing to Kungsholmen. In 1907, it was replaced by a concrete bridge with a swivel middle part in steel trusses. It had been paid for by the landowners and went from Lilla Essingen in Hugo Mattssonsvägen (now Luxgatan) over to Kungsholmen. On New Year’s Eve 1936, the current Marieberg Bridge, a 109-meter-long steel structure was inaugurated.

It was initially called Lilla Essingebron as a counterpart to the name Stora Essingebron which was a steel arch bridge. It was built in 1927–1928 on the southwest side of the island and spanned over to Stora Essingen. Before that there was a naval bridge(built 1917) and a drawbridge (built 1921) between Lilla and Stora Essingen. The large Essinge bridge was demolished in the early 1960s when the Essingeleden was drawn across the island. At the same time, a local bridge, called Gamla Essinge bridge road, was built between Lilla and Stora Essingen.

A city plan for the central parts of the island gained legal force in 1931. It allowed new buildings with apartment buildings that became one of Stockholm’s most highly developed residential areas. The town plan also established some new main streets, among them Essingeleden Brogata, Primusgatan and Luxgatan. The architects include Ernst Grönvall, Birger Borgström, Ivar Engström and Joel Lundeqvist. The neighborhood got names like Primusköket, Rensnålen, Luxlampan, Kylskåpet and Dammsugaren which were linked to the island’s industrial activities.

Stadshagen
Stadshagen is a district in Stockholm’s Sankt Göran district on the northwestern part of the island of Kungsholmen in Stockholm’s inner city. The district borders the districts Kungsholmen through Mariebergsgatan and Igeldammsgatan; Kristineberg through Lindhagensgatan; Marieberg through Drottningholmsvägen and to Huvudsta in Solna municipality through the Karlberg Canal.

Stadshagen is mentioned during the 17th century as Stadens mulbete and later Stadens hage and Stadshagen. The district was for a long time a rural part of the outskirts of the city. Here were a couple of larger farms, Ekedal and Ulriksborg. Stora Hornsberg was a stately building built on the shores of Lake Ulvsundasjön in the middle of the 17th century. There has since been both a cotton factory and a sugar factory. In the 1890s, Stora Bryggeriet was built on this site.

Due to the housing shortage in Stockholm in the 1890s, a number of poor, homeless people and homeless people who did not have a home elsewhere in the city gathered here. In the slums, they built meager sheds of all kinds of debris and waste wood – without windows and heating – to have somewhere to live. Stadshagen was referred to at the beginning of the 20th century as “one of the most desolate and poorest parts of the city’s outskirts”.

The area also became an excursion destination for Kungsholmen’s working families. Here they could get out into the fresh air with a lunch bag, blankets and musical instruments. The rural area prompted Tomt AB Hornsberg to acquire land in 1876 to build Hornsberg’s residential town a few years later. But never became a success, much due to all the poverty and factories in the immediate vicinity and the company failed to sell a single plot. Today, only some of the romantic neighborhood names are reminiscent of Hornsberg’s residential town.

In Stadshagen is the Karlbergs-Bro Colony Association, one of the city’s oldest allotment garden areas, which was founded in 1909. Today, a small area remains next to the Karlberg Canal east of Lilla Hornsberg, while most of the colony areas are built on and used for other purposes. One of the largest colonies was Stora Hornsberg’s garden colony, which was established in 1905 and demolished in 1940-1941. Several of the old neighborhood names such as Lyckan, Lustgården, Paradiset and more derive from the city plan for Hornsbergs villastad.

There was a severe housing shortage in Stockholm at the beginning of the 20th century and the authorities decided to quickly provide cheap, simple housing. In June 1917, under the auspices of the City of Stockholm, emergency housing began to be built in the Kyllet district, on the site of the current Gångaren district. The houses were ready for occupancy in the autumn of the same year. Sven Erik Lundqvist was hired as an architect. These were 23 wooden houses on two floors with 12-16 apartments with one room and a kitchen of 35 m² in each length. The apartments were equipped according to the standards of the time: wood stove and tiled stove for heating, in addition gas stove and gas stove for cooking as well as water and sewage.

In the area, which was reminiscent of old-fashioned working – class communities, there were shops, a sewing shop, firewood and scrap dealers and a newspaper kiosk. The whole thing was somewhat reminiscent of a working-class society, where the lengths of houses stood a little crosswise. In connection with the formation of the new district “Stadshagen” in 1938, the workers’ housing in the Kyllret district began to be called by the residents “Gamla Stadshagen”, popularly also somewhat ironic “Guldgrävarlägret”. The last houses were demolished in the mid-1960s to make way for office buildings and hospital buildings. Today, Electrolux ‘s headquarters are located here.

The Lindhagen urban development project (named after the city planner Albert Lindhagen) was decided in 1999 and began in 2005 with Lindhagensgatan getting new avenue trees. The first new homes were completed in 2006 at the corner of Sankt Göransgatan and Mariebergsgatan in the Gångaren neighborhood, where an area that had previously been a parking lot for Sankt Göran’s hospital was built with 200 apartments.

Stora Essingen
Stora Essingen is an island and a district in Stockholm, next to Lilla Essingen in Lake Mälaren. The island is 73 hectares in size, and is surrounded by Essingefjärden, Essingedjupet, Essingesundet, Klubbfjärden and Oxhålet. The district borders Fredhäll, Lilla Essingen, Gröndal, Smedslätten, Äppelviken and Alvik. The island belongs to Kungsholmen’s district area.

The northern cape of Stora Essingen was about 1500 years ago an independent island. During the 19th century, the meadowland was cultivated in the valleys around the island’s high, barren peaks. A leasehold called Herrgården was built below Kungsklippan on the eastern side of the island. The place was an outpost to Ulvsunda. The block Gammelgården and Gammelgårdsvägen are still reminiscent of the old courtyard. The farm’s main building is still preserved within the Gammelgården block (Gammelgårdsvägen no. 4) and is thus one of the island’s oldest remaining buildings.

For a long time, Stora Essingen’s Wärdshus with its two wings was the island’s only settlement. The inn was a sea inn by the sailing route towards Stockholm and existed from the 18th century until 1876. The inn’s bowling alley remained until the early 20th century and the west wing still exists, today as a private residence. Värdshusparken and Värdshusbryggan are reminiscent of the place today.

To the west, by Aluddsvägen and Stenkullavägen with sweeping views of Lake Mälaren, some exclusive functionalist-style villas were built during the 1930s, designed by Björn Hedvall, Ernst Auby, Georg Lindberg and Edvin Engström, among others. Some of the villas are marked in green by the City Museum in Stockholm, which means “that the buildings have a high cultural-historical value and are particularly valuable from a historical, cultural-historical, environmental or artistic point of view”. The actors Adolf Jahr (Aluddsvägen 16) and Edvard Persson settled here(Aluddsvägen 8) and later also the ice hockey player Sven Tumba (Aluddsvägen 18).

Farthest to the north was the island’s only major industry. Here, Essinge Ångtvätt ran its business from 1907 to 1963 after a large fire destroyed the laundry. In the early 1980s, some office buildings were built there, among them Lärarnas Hus and Swedbanken’s IT center in the Ångtvätten district.

At Norrskogsvägen 1-3 is a well-known terraced house area. The area, which is clearly visible on the west side of the Essingeleden at the height of the Stora Essinge entrance, consists of eight terraced houses divided into two lengths that were designed in 1936 in functional architecture by architect Rolf Hagstrand and his partner Birger Lindberg. The terraced houses are marked in green by the City Museum.

The expansion of the planned land was in principle completed at the end of the 1940s, after which additions and densifications have been carried out over the decades. The extension of the Essingeden between the years 1961-1966 meant that part of the oldest buildings along the eastern shore were demolished. During the 1960s, a densification of the buildings with terraced houses began, during the 1970s that development continued, partly at the expense of the older buildings.

In the Essingevarvet district with a view of Oxhålet, the Essingeviken residential area was built in the 1990s. The development consists of nine point houses with 116 condominium apartments. The houses were designed by Sundell architects. Here was previously Kungsholms Express warehouse and office.