The stone town takes shape

The new building code of 1874 requires buildings of stone in town centres, and the Lindhagen plan gives Stockholm straight esplanades. Östermalm and Vasastan are built up with five-storey blocks in render and brick.

Sweden’s towns gained their closed blocks and historicist façades, which today define the image of the inner city.

Stockholm grew rapidly in the second half of the 19th century as people moved in from the countryside and industry expanded. The districts outside the Old Town were long dominated by low timber houses, alleys and yards, where sanitary conditions were poor and cholera struck several times. Fire was a constant threat. At the same time, Paris under Haussmann had shown how a city could be transformed with broad boulevards. In 1866 a committee led by the lawyer Albert Lindhagen presented a plan for Stockholm with straight streets, tree-lined esplanades and large squares. The plan was not carried out in full, but it set out the main lines of Östermalm, Vasastan, Kungsholmen and parts of Södermalm.

The building code of 1874 applied to all the towns of the realm and required town plans, wider streets and buildings of stone in town centres. A building boom followed in the 1870s and 1880s. It was mostly master builders and property speculators who built, block by block. The façades were given historicist decoration in render, often in the Neo-Renaissance style, with ornaments of cast cement that could be ordered from catalogues, and later also façades of brick and natural stone. Facing the street were large apartments for the well-to-do, with drawing room and dining room en enfilade, while the courtyard buildings held small flats for workers and servants. Overcrowding in these was often severe.

The stone town was criticised even as it was being built. Around 1900, planners such as Per Olof Hallman, inspired by the Austrian Camillo Sitte, argued that the grid was monotonous, and they advocated curving streets and more varied urban spaces, as in Lärkstaden. In the 1950s and 60s many of the old buildings were regarded as outdated, and parts of the stone town were demolished. Today the blocks are among the most sought-after residential areas in Sweden, and their closed blocks have once again become a model for new urban development. The same development took place in most Swedish towns. In Sundsvall, after the great fire of 1888, an entire town centre was built in stone, which is also known as Stenstaden, the Stone Town.