Brumleby is an enclave of

terraced house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

s in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, located between

Øster Allé Øster Allé (literally "East Avenue") is a street in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, connecting Trianglen to Vibenhus Runddel. The northern part of the street, after Parken Stadium, Denmark's national football stadium, bisects F� ...

and

Østerbrogade Østerbrogade is the principal shopping street and thoroughfare in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It extends from Lille Triangel at the north-eastern tip of The Lakes, Copenhagen, The Lakes, passes Trianglen, Copenhagen, Trianglen, ...

, just south of

Parken Stadium Parken Stadium, also known simply as Parken and as Telia Parken (2014–2020), is a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro (''Inner Østerbro'') district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990 to 1992. The stadium, which features a retractable ...

and St. James' Church. Built for indigent workers by the

Danish Medical Association The Danish Medical Association (DADL) is a medical professional association in Denmark. It has a membership of 21,800, and is affiliated with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Since 1954, it has published the medical journal ...

from 1854 to 1872, it is one of the earliest examples of

social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

in Denmark and became a model for later projects. The development was designed by

Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

in Neoclassical style and later expanded by

Vilhelm Klein Vilhelm Klein (6 March 1835 – 10 February 1913) was a Danish architect who adopted the Historicist approach, frequently emulating the so-called Rosenborg style and the Italian Renaissance style. Early life Born in Copenhagen, Denmark as the ...

to a roughly similar design.

History

Background

The idea of providing cheap and healthy homes for the poorest part of the city's work force originated among local politicians and medical doctors during the

1853 Copenhagen cholera outbreak The 1853 Copenhagen cholera outbreak was a severe outbreak of cholera which occurred in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1853 as part of the third cholera pandemic. It killed about 4,800 people. Background Medical professionals had since the 1840s warned ag ...

which killed approximately 5,000 citizens. A major reason for the outbreak was the dismal conditions in the poorest parts of the city which suffered from

overcrowding Overcrowding or crowding is the condition where more people are located within a given space than is considered tolerable from a safety and health perspective. Safety and health perspectives depend on current environments and on local cultural n ...

and lack of proper sanitary services. Copenhagen's population had almost doubled since 1800 but the city had still not been allowed to expand beyond its old fortification ring.

Construction phase

The

decided to take action, purchasing a piece of land on the Eastern Commons after raising funds privately. The prominent architect

was commissioned to design the houses, Construction began in 1854 and the first stage of the development, with 240 apartments, was inaugurated in 1857. Due to the intervention of the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...

, a planned extension did not begin until 1866. After Bindesbøll's death in 1856, he was replaced by

, one of his employees. By the time the second stage was completed in 1872, Brumleby had 550 apartments which housed approximately 2,500 inhabitants.

Later history

In 1878, still with Klein as the architect, the Medical Association continued its construction of apartments for workers at another site further from the city, next to the Eastern Gasworks, but these were later demolished. Over the years there were also numerous proposals to demolish Brumleby and replace it with more dense housing but in 1959 the area was listed.

The name

The area was not originally known as Brumleby, but simply as ''Lægeforeningens Boliger'' (English: The Medical Association's Residences), but the name emerged colloquially towards the end of the 19th century and obtained official status in 1984. The prefix ''Brumle-'', in the beginning also seen as ''Brumme-'', most likely was a reference to the sound from the grazing cattle on the surrounding

common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

s. The suffix -by simply means ''town'' or ''area'', as in the English 'by-law' and place-names as such as Grimsby and Derby.

Architecture

Brumleby consists of four rows of two-storey houses with bicoloured facades, ochre coloured ground floors and white first floors, and slate roofs. The inspiration for the design came from Italian agricultural workers' housing which Bindesbøll had seen during his years in Italy. The apartments were no larger than those inside the city, just 25 sqm, often for families with many children, but their planning set new standards with its spacious layout, abundant light and fresh air as well as integration of common facilities such as wash houses, co-operative shops, a bath house, workshops and shared spaces.

Brumleby today

Brumleby still serves as social housing, part of ''Københavns Almindelige Boligselskab''. Today, after mergers during a major renovation in the 1990s, the number of apartments has been reduced to 221. The renovation also fitted the apartments with private bathrooms and toilets, before that these facilities were shared.

Notable residents

Ilia Fibiger Ilia Fibiger (5 October 1817 – 10 June 1867) was a Danish writer and playwright as well as Denmark's first professional nurse. She was the elder sister of writer and feminist Mathilde Fibiger. Literary work Ilia Fibiger published four volu ...

(1817–1867), writer and Denmark's first professional nurse, lived there with six orphans in the 1860s. The writer

Martin Andersen Nexø Martin Andersen Nexø (26 June 1869 – 1 June 1954) was a Danish writer. He was one of the authors in the Modern Breakthrough movement in Danish art and literature. He was a socialist throughout his life and during the second world war moved to ...

lived in the area as a child, from 1872 to 1877, and has portrayed it in the 1952 childhood memoires ''Et Lille Kræ''. Mille Dinesen a Danish actress best known for starring in the film Nynne, as well as the title role in the television series Rita.Interview on Café Hack Danish Radio show. September 18, 2016

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 55.702, 12.575, type:landmark_region:DK, display=title Listed residential buildings in Copenhagen Listed buildings and structures in Østerbro Neoclassical architecture in Copenhagen Residential buildings completed in 1872 Residential buildings in Copenhagen Danish Culture Canon