Making the Island of Södermalm Accessible

More than any other of the city’s neighborhoods, Södermalm is characterized by its dramatic topography.  The steep cliffs and high interior of the island had always been a challenge, but it wasn’t until the 1880’s that planners tried to address the problem.  If the island wasn’t easily accessible, demand for housing on the island would never reach its full potential, and getting supplies into the interior of the island for building projects would remain a major obstacle.

Other areas of the cities have had their topographical challenges, too.  Some of these, such as Tyskbagarbergen in Östermalm, are invisible today as the offending granite has now been completely blasted away.  

Other measures such as the Brunkeberg Ridge Tunnel between Östermalm and Norrmalm as well as the stairs navigating the cliffs of northern Kungsholmen are visible efforts to combat the city’s difficult geography.  

Even so, these other neighborhoods aren’t as defined by their topography in the same way that Södermalm is.  Because its high cliffs face the city, Söder’s high plateau metaphorically and physically sets the island apart from the rest of the city.  

Södermalm's cliffs on the saltwater and on the freshwater side of the island.

Furthermore, the interior of the island is littered with visible reminders that the island’s topography has been “adjusted” by man.  The rough granite edges and orderly granite walls are so ubiquitous that most people probably don’t pay much attention to them as they go about their daily lives.  No single sudden “adjustment” is hugely significant, but taken as a whole, the sheer number of these edges and walls adds up to a substantial movement affecting the island’s landscape.     

In my latest post about Södermalm’s first approved plan, I wrote about how the city council had added two tunnels to the plan to negotiate the steep grade between the water’s edge and the inland plateau, and that the King struck those expensive measures out of the plan.  The plan did include a new street that would cut through some of the island’s existing, dense urban fabric to wind its way up to the interior of the island.  But additional measures were more or less left to the future to decide.  This blog post focuses on those future solutions which have left their indelible mark on the neighborhood.    

Accessing Södermalm
Both private entrepreneurs and city planners tackled the problem of Södermalm’s inaccessibility at the turn of the century.  The entrepreneurs focused on new machine technology to combat the elevation differences while the city planners tended to use dynamite.

Elevators
My favorite solution to this problem is the elevators that were built from the water’s edge up to the high plateau (purple on map).  These elevators were built by private entrepreneurs who charged a per-person fee to transport people up (and down).  The first elevator was built at the square near the locks at Slussen, the only physical link between Södermalm and the rest of the city.  Slussen was, in other words, the most obvious place to build an elevator.

The original Katarina Elevator.  Left *.  Right **

Katarinahissen or Katarina Elevator (map 1) was named after the Katarina parish which lies just above Slussen, and the top of the elevator delivers you into the midst of that parish.  The first elevator was built in 1883 by engineer Knut Lindmark and was a prominent silhouette on the city’s skyline.  At the time, only church towers were more prominent, and only the Katarina elevator provided the public with such a dizzying view.  The elevator was replaced in 1936, and it is this elevator that remains today.  The new elevator has much the same placement and shape as the original.  Katarina is the only one of Södermalm’s elevators that is still in operation (it’s supposed to open again after all the construction around the current giant infrastructure project at Slussen is complete).

The current Katarina Elevator including the long, long bridge that links back to the neighborhood.

The Mariahissen or Maria Elevator (map 2) from 1885 took another approach to achieve prominence.  While the Katarina Elevator is a stand-alone and visibly technological structure, the Maria Elevator is embedded in a building and the elevator is not visible from the exterior.  However, the building, designed by F G A Dahl, has a prominent, recognizable design and its placement on the Maria hill makes it visible from much of the city.  The Maria Elevator is just to the west of Slussen and is named for its parish.  A bridge connects the elevator to a slightly higher level than the street behind the building.  

The Maria Elevator (brick building near the water) and it's bridge.

 

A few years later, in 1907, Stadsgårdshissen or Stadsgård Elevator (map 3) was built a few blocks east of Slussen.  This elevator connected the Stadsgård harbor to the interior of the island and was probably used primarily by the harbor workers.  This elevator structure was much simpler and while elegant, didn’t have the same prominence as the Katarina and Maria elevators.  Its users were pre-defined, and the elevator’s design didn’t scream to attract a larger ridership. 

The Stadsgård Elevator.  Photo on the left: ***

Dynamite

At the same time that private entrepreneurs built their elevator solutions, the city was also taking measures to make the island more accessible.  The first step was to widen the quays (orange on map).

Stadsgården (map 4) has been the home of one of Stockholm’s most important harbors and shipbuilding areas since at least the 1400’s.  In the 1700’s, a long wooden dock was built out in the water along the island’s edge in an effort to make the wharf wider.  From 1875-1915, the wooden docks were replaced in a large-scale infrastructure project where the wharf was widened by a combination of filling at the water’s edge and dynamiting the granite cliff.  The newly flattened and expanded Stadsgård harbor was connected to Slussen and to the harbor at Skeppsbron by both a road and with train tracks at the turn of the century.

The Stadsgården quay

Söder Mälarstrand (map 5) sits just on the other side of Slussen and is the freshwater harbor equivalent of Stadsgården.  Similarly, the original wooden wharf was slowly replaced by a stone quayside made of infill starting in the late 1800’s.  Blasting widened the wharf and connected it to Slussen with both a road and railroad tracks.  The freshwater and saltwater ports were now connected by land.  

Quay at Söder Mälarstrand

The next step was to connect the newly accessible ports at Stadsgården and Söder Mälarstrand to the interior of the island (red on map).  The main goal was to ease the transport of goods from the harbors to Södermalm’s interior, and it was an added bonus that transportation for humans was also made easier.  Söder Mälarstrand was first to be connected to the interior of the island in 1890.  A “gateway” was blasted into the cliff face, and the street Torkel Knutssonsgatan now winds up from the quayside up onto the plateau (map 6).  This was a major event at the time, the newspapers heralded the blasting of the “magnificent approach” (“den storartade uppfarten”).  The new gateway road sits much lower than an older existing cross street and a bridge was built across the new road so that the two sides of the existing street would still be connected.      

The Torkel Knutssonsgatan ramp.  The street Gamla Lundagatan connects across the new canyon on a bridge.

The new connection up from Stadsgården, Katarinavägen (map 7), was built between 1900-1914.  This was the winding road that the city council had added into the plan for Södermalm.  This street broke through already existing urban fabric and it was a huge project to blast this long ramp.  At the top of the ramp, the street was blasted through more granite to connect to the existing street network at Renstiernas gata.  

Left: The Katarinavägen ramp from the water.  Right: The gateway blasted through to the street network at Renstiernas gata. 

Here, streets which used to be connected are now completely disconnected from each other—no bridges were built like at Torkel Knutssonsgatan. 

Fjällgatan was not given a connection across the new canyon.

Another, later connection from the freshwater port at Söder Mälarstrand up to the island’s interior was built at Högalidsgatan (map 8) in the early 1900’s.  Like Katarinavägen, this road was also blasted as a long ramp mostly parallel to the original, lower street.  This road is now closed to cars but was originally open to all traffic.  

The Högalidsgatan ramp.

 

Accessibility in the Interior
Access from the water’s edge to the interior of the island was now realized.  But there was still a lot of work to do on the interior of the island to make transport across the island convenient and to give access to the island’s high bulbs.  

Easier Inclines 
Before the ”modern” era of city planning in the late 1800’s, streets and buildings followed the existing topography, no matter how steep.  

The resulting street inclines were sometimes all but impossible for horses and wagons to navigate, much less the new-fangled automobiles.  As streets were widened, buildings on one side of the street were allowed to remain while the buildings on the other side were demolished (yellow on map).  The street’s grade was often made just a little more manageable, meaning that the older buildings were connected to a higher street and the newer buildings were connected to a lower street, resulting in sections of two parallel streets.  The higher streets were limited to foot traffic while the more manageable lower streets were to be used by wagons.  The most prominent examples of this are the Horn Street Hump, Hornsgatspuckeln, on Hornsgatan (map 9) 

and the Little Hump, Lilla puckeln, on Brännkyrkagatan (map 10).

Sometimes the newly widened street was blasted to a more manageable grade without making accommodations for the older buildings, leaving them high and dry (green on map).  These buildings are now only accessible from the back.  Some examples: 

Hornsgatan (map 11)

Brännkyrkagatan (map 12)

Högbergsgatan/Skaraborgsgatan (map 13)

Åsögatan/Sågargatan (map 14)

Skånegatan (map 15)

Söder Mälarstrand (map 16)

When new streets were blasted through at unnaturally low levels, measures were needed to connect up to higher, existing streets.  For example, Fjällgatan now has a “tail” that serpentines up from the newly blasted gateway on Renstiernas gata that winds up to Fjällgatan’s original level (map 17).

Another, later phenomenon involved the blasting of two parallel streets to make the high bulbs more accessible for new development (blue on map).  Stairs were often provided as a shortcut for pedestrians.  

Sometimes the strip between the two parallel streets was wide enough to be planted with bushes and trees, giving the streets a much more verdant atmosphere than otherwise would be the case.  Also, these height differences are usually less dramatic, which further softens the effect.  Examples:

Hallandsgatan (2 directions) (map 18)

Assessorsgatan /Helgagatan (map 19)

Kristinehovsgatan (map 20)

Lundagatan (2 directions) (map 21)

Maria Prästgårdsgata (map 22)

Högbergsgatan/Högbergsbacken (2 directions) (map 23).  Here a more recent and very narrow building was built in the space between the two streets.

Even within a new development, difficult topography sometimes had to be leveled out in terraces or with two parallel streets at different levels (pink on map).  A couple of examples:

Assessorsgatan (map 24)

Pålsundsgatan (map 25)

 
Terraces

Some streets were blasted deep into the island’s granite to form terraces stepping down the hillsides (turquoise on map).  An example of this is at Högalidsgatan (map 26) and Heleneborgsgatan (map 27).  Parts of these streets give no clue that they sit on unnaturally low terraces levels, 

but where older development remains, such as at the home for the elderly at Stockholms Borgargille, these streets become canyonlike.  

I’m actually not sure why these streets were terraced down the slope of the hill—perhaps to give the future Högalid Church an even more prominent silhouette?  

Even with these unnaturally low terraces, the buildings sit high above Söder Mälarstrand and the water.  From this angle, you’d never know that the streets and buildings are unnaturally low. 

Conclusion
Most of the measures described above would have been unthinkable without dynamite, one of Sweden’s most important inventions.  Nobel patented the process which made blasting predictable, calculable, and safe in 1864.  Stockholm was quick to incorporate the new technology into its planning, and Södermalm is perhaps Stockholm’s most extensive example of early dynamite usage.

Once Södermalm was made accessible and its streets were given more manageable slopes, the island was quickly developed with apartment buildings.  As in other parts of the city, the easier to build upon lots were built first, with a big surge of building in the 1880’s, while the high, harder to build upon areas were built out decades later in the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s and were thus designed with newer planning ideals.  The older gridded development provides Södermalm’s background marching rhythm while the newer areas provide literal peaks of interest.  

Even if most people probably don’t really notice all of the protruding granite scattered along Södermalm’s streets, I think that these jagged edges give the island a slightly wild, brooding character.  So much of Södermalm is beautiful, but in a few places these heavy-handed street passages are far from elegant and are more of a show of brute force than pleasing planning esthetics.  The more attractive examples are those that have trees and bushes softening the hard edge of the high walls.   

In places, the streets are so deeply embedded in the island’s rock that the resulting streetscapes are inhuman in scale and have a dark, brooding character.  

Because some of the stone walls are oppressive in height and monotonously long, the adjacent passages are not particularly pleasant pedestrian routes and constitute some of Södermalm’s grungier streetscapes.  It was no surprise for me to read that the planners were prioritizing the movement of goods rather than people when designing some of these passageways.  Like the railroad slicing across central Stockholm, these cuts in Södermalm’s bedrock represent some of Stockholm’s first planning measures where technology and function trumped concerns for beauty and quality of life.  This trend of prioritizing transportation infrastructure over human wellbeing would unfortunately continue throughout much of the 20th century.

I’m not saying that Södermalm should have remained inaccessible.  Opening Södermalm up was a necessary measure and many beautiful cityscapes resulted from it.  Slightly later in Stockholm’s planning history, planners such as Hallman mastered the technique of layering buildings over steep gradients and curving roads up the contours to create picturesque, human-scaled neighborhoods despite challenging topography.  These designs celebrated the topography instead of treating it like an enemy to be conquered.  I’m curious how Hallman would have handled the more challenging cliffs on Södermalm—would he have found less brutish solutions to making the island accessible?      

Sources

Håkan Forsell, Söder, Drömmar och förvandlingar i en svensk stadsdel (2025)
Nils-Erik Landell, Stockholms kartor (2000)
Olof Hultin, Bengt Johansson, Johan Mårtelius, & Rasmus Waern, The Complete Guide to Architecture in Stockholm (2009)
Thomas Hall, Stockholm, The Making of a Metropolis (2009)
https://web.archive.org/web/20150207014014/http://historia.stockholmshamnar.se/Platser/Stockholm/StadsgardshamnenMasthamnen/
https://www.stockholmshamnar.se/historia/platser/stockholm/stadsgaardshamnen/

Images

All images are my own except for
* (old Katarinahissen, with horses) Wilhelm Lamm (1899), downloaded from https://www.dn.se/blogg/epstein/2013/09/27/unika-bilder-pa-gamla-slussen/
** (old Katarinahissen, from side) Axel Lindahls Fotografiaffär (1900), downloaded from https://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se/post/12308
*** (Stadsgårdshissen) Holger Ellgaard (1910), downloaded from (https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadsg%C3%A5rdshissen#/media/Fil:Stadsg%C3%A5rdshissen_2009z.jpg

The Island of Södermalm Finally Gets its Plan

Sadly, my blogging has taken a back seat on my priority list this last year and a half as I was working like crazy on a separate research project with a colleague…but now I’m back!

Planning in the mid to late 19th century in Stockholm was highly contentious.  As my posts about the plans for the areas of Östermalm, Norrmalm, and Kungsholmen show, plans could literally take decades to get approved.  And by the time the plans were approved, they were often quite watered-down versions of the original vision.  While the visionary Lindhagen unfailingly fought back against the value-engineering cuts made by the more practical, cost-conscious city council and city engineers and won some important concessions, many of his more elegant ideas were lost.   

In contrast, the planning process for the Island of Södermalm went remarkably smoothly.  One theory is that perhaps the parties involved were tired and just wanted to finally finish the decades-long project of creating formal plans for all the various neighborhoods of Stockholm.  That is probably true at least in part, but my theory is that there wasn’t actually much in the plan to argue about.  In contrast to Lindhagen’s proposals for other city neighborhoods, his initial plan for Södermalm doesn’t call for a lot of change, for fancy Baroque-inspired squares or circulation places, for many wide boulevards or avenues, or for diagonal boulevards cutting through the urban fabric.  Aside from the swooping Ringvägen, a curving boulevard swinging through the almost entirely undeveloped area of southern Södermalm, the plan called for very few extravagances to argue about.

Geography

Even more so than Kungsholmen, Södermalm’s geography is a challenge for planners.  Especially the north and east shores facing toward the city consist of tall, vertical cliffs of granite.  These height differences have always been difficult to manage, both on foot and for horses, and for this reason, Södermalm was always Stockholm’s poorest neighborhood.  Most people with means chose to live in other neighborhoods with easier access. 

Once up on Södermalm’s high plateau, the geography isn’t as dramatic.  There are of course some higher areas (such as the Hornsgatspuckeln, or Horn Street Hump) and some lower areas (such as the Fatburen bog where the Southern railroad station was built), but most of the middle of the island is compatible with a consistent, rectilinear street grid.  

The Hornsgatspuckeln or Horn Street Hump and Fatburen which used to be a bog

Södermalm nearly touches the Old Town island of Gamla Stan at Slussen which consists of a shipping lock between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea.  Different versions of the lock have been in place since the 1600’s, and bridges over the lock have historically been the only physical connection between Södermalm and the rest of the city.  Boat traffic connecting Söder to other parts of the city has always been another key link.  Just to the southeast of Slussen is Stadsgården, a historic shipping harbor.  The island’s southeast shore was once dominated by various industries along the Hammarby Sjö Lake.

While Södermalm hadn’t been “wilderness” for centuries, only a portion of the island nearest the city center was a developed urban environment when the island was first planned in the mid-1800’s.  Farms and small industries dominated most of the rest of the island’s landscape, and the city’s poorest residents lived in squatters’ shacks along the island’s highest ridges and points.  

Some of the worker's housing from the 1700's remains today

 
These geographic realities strongly influenced the Plan for Södermalm.  

The Lindhagen Plan of 1866

Lindhagen’s Plan from 1866 was the basis for Södermalm’s city plan, though several key ideas such as the swooping Ringvägen boulevard had actually been “borrowed” from earlier proposals including Wallström and Rudberg’s 1864 General Plan for Stockholm. Lindhangen's plan did not affect the already densly built up areas nearest the locks at Slussen--these neighborhoods were to remain intact.  More sparsley developed areas of the island were, however, affected.  

Lindhagen's 1866 Plan for Södermalm (*)

Lindhagen’s plans for Stockholm had two key features which were unique in Europe: boulevards connecting the city’s bodies of water and green spaces as well as parks on the city’s highest, unbuildable granite bulbs.  These features are also prominent in his plan for Södermalm.

 
The most recognizable feature of Lindhagen’s 1866 plan was the boulevard Ringvägen which was to swoop from the freshwater quay at Skinnarviksberget to the saltwater quay at Tegelviken.  This boulevard was to have allées and green terraces.  

Lindhagen's proposal for the Ringvägen boulevard.  Red was built, orange was not. (*)

Another main street was to connect the saltwater and freshwater sides of the island from Tegelviken to Årstaviken, passing by the Southern railroad station in the middle of the island.  This corresponds to today’s Folkungagatan, though the western half of this avenue was never built.  

Götgatan and Hornsgatan have historically been Södermalm’s main north-south and east-west thoroughfares.  Lindhagen proposed that these thoroughfares should be widened, meaning that all buildings on one side of the streets would have to be demolished.   

Lindhagen's proposal for Folkungagatan, Hornsgatan, and Götgatan.  Red was built, orange was not. (*)

 

Mariatorget (Maria Square) was to also receive a direct link to the water at Årstaviken.  This new street cut through existing dense development and corresponds to today’s Swedenborgsgatan, though it stops at Ringvägen and does not reach the water.  In fact, many of the streets in Lindhagen’s plan do not reach the water today.  Like Kungsholmen, geographic realities meant that streets couldn’t easily navigate the height differences which are so easy to ignore on flat paper. 

Lindhagen's proposal for Swedenborgsgatan.  Red was built, orange was not. (*)

It is interesting that aside from the arcing Ringvägen, the wide, diagonal boulevards cutting across the urban fabric that dominate Lindhagen’s plans for Östermalm, Norrmalm, and Kungsholmen are non-existent in his plan for Södermalm.  The proposed new thoroughfares conform to the street grid and are not even noticeably wide.  Why did Lindhagen leave this dominating feature out of his plan for Södermalm?  Did the traditionally poor area not merit extravagant planning?  The absence of diagonal boulevards is extra interesting because Lindhagen himself lived on Södermalm—wouldn’t he have wanted one of his beloved boulevards in his own neighborhood?  Or did he think that the unusual Ringvägen was enough to enliven the otherwise regular street grid?      

Södermalm features a number of high, hard to build upon granite bulbs.  These bulbs roughly ring the island along its shoreline.  Lindhagen’s plan designated all of these high points as parks including Mosebacken, Erstaberget, Åsöberget, Fåfängen, Vitaberget, Stadens Bergplats (Södra Sjukhuset Hospital today), Tanto, Högalid, Skinnarviksberget, and Mariaberget.  (Knowing that berg = mountain and that hög = high gives a good feeling for what these place names mean!) 

Lindhagen's proposed parks.  Red became parks, orange did not. (*)

In between boulevards and high parks, the island’s existing rectilinear street grid was to continue marching across the island, developing the majority of the island into city blocks.   

Lindhagen specified that a food market should be built at the Southern railroad station and that a new parish church should be built on the Helgalunden granite bulb.  Other institutions such as schools, museums, or government buildings were completely unaddressed in the plan. 

Lindhagen's proposal for civic functions which were limited to one new church and one new market.  These were built as planned.  The blue churches already existed when Lindhagen did his planning work.Lindhagen's proposed parks. (*)

 

Unlike the other plans, Lindhagen made several specific concessions to encourage and concentrate industrial activity on Södermalm’s shores.  The plan called for long, smoothed out, and blasted/filled in quaysides with long, sweeping waterside streets almost completely ringing the island.  For example, the existing Stadsgården harbor was to be made larger by blasting into the granite cliffs and filling out the shoreline.  The historically industrial shoreline along Hammarby Sjö Lake was specifically designated as an industrial area.  This is the first hint of formal use zoning in Stockholm’s planning history that I am aware of.   

Lindhagen's proposal for stone quaysides.  The red ones were built, the orange ones were not. (*)

The City Council’s Plan from 1878

As with the other areas of Stockholm, it took a decade for the city to move from Lindhagen’s plan to action, and it wasn’t until 1878 that the city council dusted off the plan and revised it.  Unlike the previous areas, Lindhagen did not provide the city with a revised plan, and the city had very few revisions of its own to propose.  Most everything from Lindhagen’s plan remained: the swooping Ringvägen, the new saltwater to freshwater thoroughfares, the widened quays, the shoreline streets, the high parks, the continuation of the rectilinear street grid, and the concentration of industry to Hammarby Sjö Lake all remained in the city council’s plan with a few changes.

The city council's counter-proposal of 1878. (*)  The grey area on the northern side of the island were the densely built-up areas that were to remain intact.  White squares with pink borders were built-up areas where new streets would affect existing buildings.  Fully filled-in pink squares designate entirely new blocks.  Green areas and areas with green outlines designate parks.   

The most significant change to the Plan for Södermalm was the addition of two tunnels starting at the water’s edge, boring through the granite cliffs, and topping out on Söder’s plateau.  These tunnels would create an even, gentle grade between the water and the plateau, making transportation of people and goods to the interior of the island much easier.  One tunnel was to go directly from the harbor at Stadsgården to the Southern railroad station at Södra Bantorget.  The other tunnel was to start from the Söder Mälarstrand boulevard along the island’s northern shore and connect to the existing Timmermansgatan street.  This second tunnel had already been proposed in 1864 by Wallström and Rudberg.    

The city council's proposal for tunnels to navigate difficult terrain.  These were not built. (*)

A third new access road up from the water to the plateau was proposed, this as time a winding street instead of a tunnel.  This street was to start at the lock and bridge at Slussen and wind up the cliff to connect to existing streets up on the plateau.  This new street would break through existing densely developed neighborhoods.  The exact placement has changed, but this proposed street roughly equates to today’s Katarinavägen.

The city council's proposal for Katarinavägen with access from the water's edge up onto the plateau. (*)

Several of the streets that according to Lindhagen’s plan would connect to the water on the island’s southern shore were to instead stop short of the water.  A park, Eriksdal, would occupy the cliff face where streets would have difficulty navigating the terrain.  

The city council's proposal for a park at Eriksdal where the topography is too steep for streets to connect down to the water.  (*)

In the city council’s plan, the widening of the Götgatan and Hornsgatan thoroughfares would be limited to unbuilt portions of the streets.  Already developed portions would retain their narrow, medieval atmosphere.  

The city council's proposal for the widening of Götgatan and Hornsgatan. (*)

Instead of tree-lined alleés, the council proposed green setbacks along Ringvägen’s length.  The council’s plan also included a slightly different, less perfectly round arc better suited to the terrain.  

The city council's proposal for the Ringvägen boulevard.  The red section was built, the orange section was not.

As had been the case for the other areas of the city, the city council’s plan for Södermalm retained Lindhagen’s parks, but they were to be much smaller.  However, the council proposed that the existing square at Nytorget be widened to triple its size, a rare instance of the council wishing to expand a non-buildable urban amenity.

The city council's proposal for parks and the expanded square at Nytoret.  The blue square already existed, the orange expansion did not get built.

In addition to widening quays to benefit shipping and industrial activity, the city council also proposed that a railroad spur be built from the Southern Station to Hammarby Sjö Lake.  At the lake’s edge, the railroad would split with one branch following the industrial shore west to Skanstull and the other branch following the industrial shore to the east around Barnängen to Tegelviken and the Stadsgården harbor.

The city council's proposal for stone quays.  The red were built, the orange were not.  The yellow area is the designated industrial zone. (*)

I find this railroad spur interesting and ironic.  The city council and city engineers were generally against diagonal boulevards because they were considered expensive and extravagant.  But when a diagonal railroad spur would benefit shipping, industry, and commerce, they were the first to propose it!  

The city council's proposal for railroad spurs connecting to the southern train station.  The tracks along the water were built, but they connected to the train line at Stadsgården instead.  The diagonal street was built as planned, but it was never used for the railroad as planned. (*)

 
The council’s plan features several traffic circles that weren’t in Lindhagen’s plan.  In the 1800's and before the advent of the car, roundabouts were more of a grand urban gesture than a traffic calming device.  This addition is interesting because in plans for Östermalm, Norrmalm, and Kungsholmen, the city council usually tried to value engineer out such “extravagances,” while on Södermalm the city was adding them in.  The council even broke up the park at Vitabergsparken into several sections divided by roads and with a roundabout in the middle of the park. 

The city council's propsals for traffic circles including one in the middle of the park at Vitabergsparken.  The roundabouts were never built.

1879 Plan and Vote

There really wasn’t a lot of debate surrounding this plan.  There was discussion about possibly widening the tunnels.  The new winding street up from Slussen to the plateau was deemed “probably useful” but too complicated to include in the plan.  The need to widen the square at Nytorget was debated.  But basically, everyone, including Lindhagen, was in agreement.

A slightly revised plan without the winding street up from Slussen and without the widening of Nytorget was drawn up and voted upon in 1879.  This plan was approved with very little dissent or debate. 

The approved plan of 1879 (*)

 
Royal Seal of Approval 1880

The King gave the plan his royal seal of approval in 1880, but he did veto the expensive tunnels, deciding that they could be added back in in the future if needed.  Work for one of the tunnels had already been started and can be seen at Bjorns trädgård.  The tunnels were never built as envisioned, but today’s subway line follows the proposed tunnel route up from Slussen. 

This restaurant at Björns Trädgård is built into the tunnel.

Södermalm Today

Södermalm was developed much as the 1879 plan stipulated, though there have been a number of new ideas adding layers of history to the island’s landscape.  

As with Kungsholmen, the realities of topography have been one of the main drivers of change.  Most importantly, while Ringvägen does swoop starting at the freshwater shore of Söder Mälarstrand, it does not connect to the saltwater at Tegelviken.  Instead, it ends at the high, green Vitabergsparken before turning onto another thoroughfare (Renstiernas gata).  In the end, Ringvägen was built as a tree-lined boulevard instead of with green setbacks, though it does follow the slightly less rounded shape according to the council’s proposal.    

The Ringvägen boulevard

Many other streets which were to connect to the water, especially at the island’s southern shore, were stopped at Ringvägen instead of continuing down the cliff face to the water’s edge.  Folkungagatan does not shoot across the entire island and only the eastern half of the thoroughfare was built.  Swedenborgsgatan cutting south from Mariatorget was built (and is one of my favorite streets in Stockholm!), but it stops at Ringvägen and does not reach the water.  

Swedenborgsgatan

Götgatan was widened, but only the southern undeveloped half of the street.  Today, the wider, southern half has quite a lot of car traffic, but the narrow, northern half is a pedestrian-only shopping street.  

The older and the newer sections of Götgatan have entirely different scales.

Hornsgatan was also widened, resulting in the strange Hornsgatspuckeln or Horn Street Hump where the original, narrow street is on one level and the new, widened street has been dynamited into the granite to create more reasonable street slopes.  

Hornsgatspuckeln or Horn Street Hump

It turns out that the tunnels were never needed (except much later for the subway system), but the winding access road from the water at Slussen up to the plateau ended up getting added to the plan in 1890.  Today, Katarinavägen is one of the few drivable routes up to the interior of the island from the cliff side of the island and is especially appreciated today as one of Stockholm’s best scenic overlooks.

Katarinavägen from the water, and the view from Katarinavägen.

Most, but not all of Lindhagen’s planned parks were realized.  Mosebacken is a green square but not a park per se.  

Mosebacketorg or Mosebacke Square

Both Erstaberget and Stadens Bergplats have become the sites of large hospitals.  

Stadens Bergplats has become the Södersjukhuset hospital instead of a park

Åsöberget did not become a park, but it was never developed, either.  Instead, the historic neighborhood of small workers’ cottages remains somewhat intact.  

Worker's housing from the 1700's at Åsöberget

Eriksdal, a park proposed by the city council due to the difficult terrain, is somewhat developed but other parts of the area remain as green space.  Fåfängen is designated as parkland but is so cut off by the heavily trafficked Stadsgårdsleden that it is underdeveloped and underutilized.  

Fåfängen from the island and from the water.

Both Vitaberget and Högalid are parks, but they received new parish churches at their high points. 

Churches in the parks at Vitaberg and Högalid.

Even Helgalunden, which Lindhagen had proposed as the site for a new church, is today a combination of park and church landscapes.  

The church at Helgalunden in the neighborhood's leafy central square.

Today, Tanto is one of the city’s largest and most varied parks.  

Tantolunden

Skinnarviksberget is also a park today but stands out because it was never “greened” like the other Lindhagen parks, and the original landscape of granite bulb was allowed to remain.  

Skinarviksberget

Mariaberget is a narrow, linear park as planned with green space on the edge of the highly developed cliff.  Today, it features a highly popular walking path with excellent views out over the city.  

Monteliusvägen

Just like Lindhagen planned, Södermalm is mostly covered by a consistent rectilinear grid in between the high parks and the arcing Ringvägen.  There are a number of smaller exceptions where the grid has been broken in more modern areas of development, but these exceptions are less dominant than in Vasastan or on Kungsholmen and tend to blend into the overall urban fabric.  

True to Lindhagen’s original intention, there is still a food market at the former Södra Bantorget, though today’s market hall is a much more modern version.  

The modern Söderhallarna food market.

As planned, much, though not all, of Södermalm’s shorelines has been smoothed out, blasted out, and filled in to create gently curving, wide quays and waterside roads.  

Roads on filled-in and blasted quaysides at Stadsgården and Söder Mälarstrand.

A number of industries did line the northern, eastern, southeastern, and western shores, but the southwestern shore at Årstaviken was never developed and is a park today.  

Park along the water at Årstaviken.

Industrial development along Hammarby Sjö Lake’s shores was especially intense as had been called for in the plan.  These industries have given way to new, modern housing developments starting in the 1980’s and the redevelopment continues today.  

80's and 90's development along the shore of Hammarby Sjö Lake.

Even though the railroad has long disappeared from the surface of Södermalm and is now buried in tunnels, traces of the railroad spurs are still visible.  Railroad tracks were incorporated into the paving at Norra Hammarbyhamnen (North Hammarby Harbor) when the area was revitalized from industrial sheds to modern apartments in the 1980’s and 90’s. 

Railroad tracks as an urban memory of an industrial past at Norra Hammarbyhamnen.

But the most poetic remnant of the railroad spurs is Katarina Bangata (Katarina Track Street), a diagonal street with central greenspace that cuts through the otherwise orthogonal urban fabric.  Originally, the spur to the harbor at Hammarbyhamnen was supposed to cut across the island from Södra Station (the Southern Railroad Station) to the water.  Land was reserved for this spur and a street was built along this diagonal, but railroad tracks were never laid here.  Instead, the Hammarbyhamnen harbor was reached by rail from Stadsgården with a tunnel under Fåfängen.  The quasi-industrial remnant of Katarina Bangata is one of Stockholm’s prettiest streets and most popular addresses today. 

Katarina Bangata was created to have a railroad spur in the middle, but the leafy linear park is much nicer!

    
Conclusion 

Södermalm is a large island with multiple visible layers of urbanity dating back to the 1600’s, and parts of the island are still being redeveloped today.  Several neighborhoods date from before the plans of the mid-1800’s and have an almost medieval character, but the majority of the island is a product of the 1879 Plan for Södermalm.  However, several pockets were developed considerably later, and each of these pockets has its own character reflecting the then in-vogue planning ideals. 

"Regular" streets on Södermalm.

     

Because it was historically the poorest area of town, not all areas of Södermalm were developed according to the plans.  Instead, some areas of historic workers’ housing were never rebuilt, and these areas are some of the city’s most atmospheric and unique neighborhoods today.  Its poverty has also historically flavored Söder as Stockholm’s bohemian and proletariat district, though that designation has been more recently replaced by the hipster vibe.  It is slightly, slightly cheaper to buy an apartment on Södermalm than in Östermalm or Vasastan, but you still need to be quite financially secure in order to afford an apartment here.  It has been a few decades now since Södermalm was a “working-class” area.

Old meets newer where worker's housing from the 1700's meets areas built according the plan of 1879.

Södermalm’s dramatic heights make for some of Stockholm’s best arial viewpoints.  Lindhagen’s idea to give these heights to the people in the form of green parks was genius, and these parks are still Söder-residents’ backyards and summer living rooms. These parks are one of the most successful aspects of Lindhagen’s plan.

Vitabergsparken, a summer livingroom.

Like many of Lindhagen’s other boulevards, Ringvägen is too heavily trafficked to be a lovely place to hang out.  Even so, the boulevard’s trees and green strips make the traffic artery into a beautiful urban space.

Ringvägen, a tree-lined but heavily trafficed boulevard.

As I have previously noted with the other plans for Kungsholmen, Vasastan, and Östermalm, the mostly-orthogonal Lindhagen plan for Södermalm provides a very pleasant urban backdrop without a lot of surprises or monumentality.  Much of the island obeys the rules and doesn’t stick out, so when later developments break the orthogonal pattern, they are dramatic interruptions that catch the eye and attention.  Like most of central Stockholm, Södermalm has a lovely balance of background tones contrasting with distinctive melody.  

 

Sources
Gösta Selling, Esplanadsystemet och Albert Lindhagen: Stadsplanering i Stockholm åren 1857-1887 (1970)

Images
All images are my own except for
* Gösta Selling, Esplanadsystemet och Albert Lindhagen: Stadsplanering i Stockholm åren 1857-1887 (1970)