Birgerjarlspassagen, Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm’s only vintage shopping arcade was built in the 1890s and supposedly modelled on what was then the magnificent Kaisergalerie in Berlin, although it’s impossible to compare now as Berlin’s arcades didn’t survive the destruction of World War 2.

Birger Jarlspassagen was never very long in the first place, measuring only about 40m, with just 13 shops at its busiest period.

It’s an impressive little arcade, though, with beautiful murals overhead at the entrance on Birgerjarls Gatan (or street), and dark mahogany shop fronts still today, even if there are even fewer active businesses in operation than, say, 30 years ago.

Today, a Japanese restaurant seems to be the main draw, and in fact walk in through the entrance to the arcade at that end and the staff seem to assume you have come looking for a table. Dining is possible under the glass ceiling if you don’t mind passers-by like me walking alongside your table as you eat.

There is also a beautiful art gallery with a mix of local artists’ work and some big names like Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst. And back at the main street end is a baby clothes shop, but sadly no sign any longer of the once famous Gul & Bla clothes shop, where once upon a time all of Stockholm’s trendy youth would go for their latest clothes.

Nor of course is there any sign of the old music hall venue, which turned into a cinema and then became that clothes shop. Also gone are the once infamous toilets, with their marble and mahogany fittings.

But it’s a cosy little arcade, reminding me a little of Edinburgh’s only arcade in terms of size, if not fittings.

I also loved the lamps above the entrance on BirgerJarls Gatan, with their creatures holding the lamp in their mouths, and hanging by their sweeping tails off the wall of the facade.

My pick of the arcade’s past

The arcade was built to coincide with the World Fair – or Exhibition – in Stockholm in 1897. The man who funded it, Johan Sjoqvist, took his architect to Berlin to study the Kaisergalerie in Unter den Linden, even though the space it filled was three times larger than anything this Stockholm gentleman had available. He also personally chose the first new tenants for the 13 shops and cafe, as he wanted a focus on quality and elegance.

There was a bookshop with a Passage Panorama, where moving pictures could be seen through hired binoculars, modelled on the original Paris arcade of the same name, with 360 degree murals. Most of the ‘films’ shown covered nature and tourism, but there were also some early news clips from the Boer War, the Dreyfus Trial or the Vesuvius eruption. By 1908 the viewing room gave way to a cinema, Maxim’s, which stayed till 1963, before making way for a trendy clothes shop.

There was once a shells, corals and pearls shop. The man who ran it married the girl who ground the pearls in the basement. She continued to run it for 40 years after he died. Writer August Strindberg was a regular customer, and the arcade and its shells appeared in many of his plays, including The Great Highway (Stora Landsvagen), which apparently has a whole scene set in the arcade) …

Source for these stories, and my great thanks go out to the writer, because this was he only real source I found beyond Wikipedia: An excellent blogger from Sweden, whose work is mostly available also in English. Here’s a link to the article which fed these highlights.

This arcade in films or books

I haven’t found reference to the arcade in any films or books, bu he above blog piece assures us that the arcade features for several scenes in the plays of Strindberg, especially The Great Highway.