It’s hard to imagine that this sought-after address in Stockholm was once considered so far off the beaten track that it was given the nickname ‘Siberia’.
In the 1800s Roslagsgatan, which stretches from Norrtull over Odengatan to intersect with Birger Jarlsgatan, was on the very edge of the capital, the last outpost on the road north towards Roslagen.
Much has changed since then, yet a lot still remains the same. With its antique dealers and small intimate shops and restaurants that originally sprung up at the time when tram number six used to pass by, the area retains much of the charm of that era, as well as a unique position in the geography of the city.
Neither entirely residential nor commercial, it is sandwiched between Sveavägen and Valhallavägen. The bustling traffic to and from the school at Norra Real is entirely absent in the summer when the residents, patrons and business owners evacuate to Roslagen and beyond.
Combining antiques and boutiques, pensioners, trendy hipsters and young families, the traditional and the modern, it is a street intent on reaching the future through the past, with a foot firmly planted in both camps.
THE ARCHITECTURE
As Stockholm’s population exploded in the late 1800s, the city needed somewhere to house them. The numbers living in the city doubled between 1870 and 1900, and Roslagsgatan and the surrounding area became the biggest building site in the land.
“In what was to become Vasastan, the area south of Odengatan was built up with large buildings of urban stone design,” says a historical report from the City Planning Office. Despite some more modern structures that went up in the 1960s and 70s, the stone style remains dominant.
Property developers who built at the start of the 1900s did so with one eye on turning a handsome profit, and that meant commercial premises on the ground floor and relatively compact apartments upstairs.
But gradually the labourers who were the original residents moved out, and by the 1980s you couldn’t call yourself a yuppie unless you’d bought two of adjoining apartments and knocked the dividing walls.
TO GET THERE
Given its reasonably central location, getting to Roslagsgatan is pretty easy, even if the number 6 tram stopped running down the street some time in the 1960s.
From the north side of town you can get any tunnelbana line to Fridhemsplan, and change there to the number 4 bus.
If you’re coming from the south and prefer to stay underground for the whole journey, take the green line north and jump off at Rådmansgatan. Exit the station to the north and it’s a short walk to Odengatan. Turn right and from there, walk a couple of hundred meters and you’ll come to the junction of Roslagsgatan and Odengatan.
