Hötorget is famous for the people selling things in the daily market place all the way back to the early medieval days. This used to be a village called Väsby in those days and when they built the street “Kungsgatan” (the King’s Street) they found several skeletons, money and other remains from some 700 years back in time.
In 1914 the trade with fresh raw meats such as beef, sheep, swine or horse. Later the same year all freshed and skinned animals as well as birds, salted or smoked fish, boiled shellfish, butter, bread, cheese and flour was also banned for sanitary reasons.
Many of the people selling foodstuffs then moved into the indoor marketplace nearby instead where it was still allowed.
Today you will find mainly people selling used second hand items, toys, mobile phone accessories, bags, handbags and valises, cheap clothes (with varying quality I must say) your various bric-a-brac stuff and old musical instruments, CD’s, LP’s and so on… and you can find pretty much anything if you asked around. I saw two laptops being sold as well. One looked severely used. The other looked brand new.
No questions asked.
The houses around is dominated by shopping but there is a huge blue house where which is the Stockholm Concert Hall. This building requires a page of it’s own but it is a great example of 1920s architecture.
My great grand father Johan Fredrik Jansson started to sell his produce here 100 years ago. He bought a property in Tungelsta and started his horticulture business back in 1908. All thanks to the railway line Nynäsbanan that made it so much easier to transport the vegetables and flowers.
Thats a rather cool connection!
So your family has been around in the area for a rahter long time then?