Peter Olesen
OUT HERE IN VALBY Photos by Kurt Rodahl Hoppe
FRYDENLUND
Contents Preface 9 Valby Langgade 19 The old industrial buildings 39 Other large companies 65 Valby’s cultural life 77 Green Valby 95 Residential neighbourhoods 125 Afterword 149 Thank you 150
View from an inner courtyard in Annexstræde Spinderiet
The old industrial buildings Spinderiet and Porcelænsfabrikken In 1906, what is now Spinderiet was built as a large cotton spinning mill next to Valby Station, facing Skolegade and Annexstræde. The factory closed down its spinning activities as early as the 1960s, and since then the building has housed a number of enterprises, including the successful Lauritzen auction house. At the beginning of this millennium, a flurry of activity, renovation and extension took place in and around the building, and by 2007 Valby had a new, large shopping centre, partly glass roofed and open to several sides. It is located between Skolegade, Annexstræde, Porcelænstorvet and Ved Ovnhallen and houses 50 shops. Known as Spinderiet (‘the Spinnery’), it is a definite success. A lot of people shop there and the location close to Valby Langgade has ensured that the shopping centre and the high street are mutually supportive, with neither party directly interfering with the other. As mentioned before, there is a thriving café milieu around Spinderiet, and there are frequent markets in the glass-covered central square.
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The gable end of Prøvehallen facing the railway decorated by Anita Jørgensen. Photo: Anders Sune Berg Prøvehallen viewed from Porcelænstorvet The former Porcelænsfabrikken Norden now houses Valby School
Next to Spinderiet is the former porcelain factory, Porcelænsfabrikken Norden. Its buildings have also been renovated and now house a school that was formerly situated in Rughavevej. The large old test-bay, which used to produce high-voltage insulators in white porcelain, is now a centre for culture and theatre called Prøvehallen, which faces Porcelænstorvet. It is truly a pleasure to explore this area, and you cannot but applaud the fact that the charming old buildings survived and avoided the fate of succumbing to the bulldozers like so many others of their kind. The idea of reusing the old buildings has been clearly vindicated, and extending them has proved quite unproblematic. 42
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