Canton

According to Sandra Day, Class of 1976 (1971-76), alumni can be divided into two tribes. “Everybody who’s ever been part of this school will know of the wurst joint on Bellevueplatz – it’s the best in Zurich. You’re either a cervelat person or a bratwurst person. It’s a philosophy!”

The teenaged Sandra – cervalat to her core – would stop at Sternen Grill with friends on her way home from school. And fifty years later, she’s still a regular. “With the hottest mustard in town and a stange draught beer, you were in seventh heaven; and it has not changed. If we have any school reunions, that’s where we go.”

And as Bellevueplatz was the transit point for so many students through the city on their journey to and from school, Sternen Grill is just one of several favourite haunts. “Pretty much everybody had to go through Bellevueplatz,” explains Sandra. “So it was an important place. My sisters would walk to the bus station with their friends and I would walk with my friends, and stragglers would just all meet and then continue the journey together on the bus. We caused havoc on the bus ride – we filled the whole bus!”

Sandra remembers buying candy at the kiosk in the pavilion at the centre of the square, a “1950s architectural gem” that she is pleased to note has been protected from development all these years. But while the pavilion is a constant, the businesses within it have changed. You can still buy candy at the kiosk, she says, but “now you can get very fancy latte macchiatos there, which didn’t exist during my time at school!”.

There was plenty of plain old hanging out at Bellevueplatz too, both on the way home from school and at weekends. “It was cold in the winter but we were hardy. It’s not like we never went to each other’s houses – it was just more convenient to meet in a central place and then catch the last public transport home. It was a safe, workable solution for teenagers.” And what did they get up to there? “There was a lot of hand-holding and kissing,” remembers Sandra with a laugh. “That was the central part of it!”

Today, Bellevueplatz is “very picturesque, a lovely place right at the mouth of Lake Zurich”, says Sandra. It buzzes with both locals and tourists drawn to the smart shops and cafés, and its proximity to nearby Sechseläutenplatz. “It’s become a melting point culturally. You hear all different kinds of languages. English-speaking kids aren’t considered foreigners anymore, they’re just part of the community.” This wasn’t the case in the 1970s however, when Switzerland “hadn’t really opened up yet”, she recalls. “We were exotic.”

And while the times may have changed, teenagers haven’t. “I still bump into kids doing the same thing I did on the way to school. They look different and they dress differently, but I can tell them from afar, and I chuckle because it’s not that different from when I was a kid – they’re hanging out, they’re shopping, they’re in transit – but the context is different. And they look like happy kids.” Z