Söder Stockholm aerial videoBrännkyrkagatan on Södermalm.Ryssgården square at the Slussen area, Södermalm.Wooden house at Åsögatan 213, built 1730.Söder Torn, an 86-meter-tall building near Medborgarplatsen. Built in 1997 after drawings from the Danish architect Henning Larsen.
Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is the southern district of Stockholm City Centre.
The Södermalm district covers the island of the same name (formerly called Åsön), which, however, is not fully separated from the peninsula of Södertörn (or the rest of the Swedish mainland), as water to both its north and south does not flow freely but passes through a lock and a man-made waterway.
Administratively, Södermalm is part of Stockholm Municipality. It constitutes, together with Gamla stan and some other districts, from 2007 the administrative district Södermalms stadsdelsområde, often translated as Södermalm borough.
The name Södermalm (asSuthaermalm) is first mentioned in 1288 in a letter from Bishop Anund of Strängnäs. Until the early 17th century Södermalm was mainly a rural, agricultural area.[1] Its first urban areas were planned and built in the mid 17th century, comprising a mixture of working class housing, such as the little red cottages of which a few can still be seen in northeastern Södermalm, and the summer houses and pavilions of wealthier families, such as Emanuel Swedenborg's pavilion, which is now in the outdoor museum Skansen. During this time, it was also the location of perhaps the first theatre in Scandinavia, Björngårdsteatern. Södermalm is often poetically named Söders höjder ("heights of the south"), which reflects its topography of sheer cliffs and rocky hills. Indeed, the hills of Södermalm provide remarkable views of Stockholm's skyline.
In the 18th century, the working-class cottages that clung to Mariaberget, the steep cliffs facing Riddarfjärden, were replaced by the large buildings that are still present today. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that urbanization grasped the entire width of Södermalm, and even today parts of Södermalm have a rural feeling to them, as for instance the landscape of tiny allotments that climb the slopes of Eriksdal.
Södermalm was once known as the "slum" area of Stockholm. However today, Södermalm is known as the home of bohemian, alternative culture and a broad range of cultural amenities. Meanwhile, the growing demand for housing, as well as an increasing gentrification of Stockholm's central parts, makes apartments in Södermalm more and more difficult or expensive to come by. Thus what was once a working-class district is now somewhat a district of the privileged.[2]
The songs and poems (Fredman's Songs and Fredman's Epistles) of the popular 18th-century poet and songwriter Carl Michael Bellman are filled with recurring references to names of places, primarily bars and mead halls, on Södermalm.[3][4]
The celebrated first paragraph of August Strindberg's satirical novel The Red Room (Röda rummet) describes Stockholm as seen from Mosebacke on Södermalm, where much of the story takes place.
City of My Dreams (Mina drömmars stad), the first in a series of books by Per Anders Fogelström telling the story of several generations of Stockholmers, follows the young worker Henning's life on Södermalm.
Mojang, a video game developer and publisher best known for the creation of the popular game Minecraft, has their main offices located on Södermalm.[5][failed verification]
^Franzén, M. "New social movements and gentrification in Hamburg and Stockholm: A comparative study." Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 20 (2005): 51-77.
