This is a photo of Austurstræti, one of Reykjavík’s oldest streets, taken at Christmas time in the mid- to late 1950s. The parking lot on the right was originally the site of the city’s fifth oldest hotel, the Hótel Ísland, which opened in 1882 and was destroyed in a fire in 1944. In the sixties the car park became a gathering place for the city’s youth, and got a particularly hard-to-translate nickname, Hallærisplanið. (“Uncool Square” or “Insufficiency Park” come close, but not really). In the mid-nineties the city built a new square, Ingólfstorg, to replace what were by then car parks on both sides of the street. Still popular with young people (skaters have replaced punks and hipsters), it’s used for concerts and other events in summer. In winter it has occasionally been turned into a skating rink.
Photo: Óskar Gíslason
