Kategori: Architecture

Public swimming in the fjord was only for men. Swimsuits were unknown garments and men and women could not swim in the same place. The first public baths for women were built in the 1840s. At the end of the 19th century, it was discovered that light and sun had a positive effect and young women in particular began to sunbathe. It became more accepted to show off their bodies and from the 20th century, many baths were built around the Oslofjord.

During the interwar period, bathing life as we know it today gained momentum: – Sea bathing as "free bathing", i.e. where both sexes bathed together, gained momentum in the 1930s.

Hvalstrand bad was established on June 7, 1934 on a property separated from the Hval farm. The farm's owner, Wilhelm Roede, and shipowner Rudolf Olsen joined forces to establish a modern bathing facility with a diving tower, a slide, and an elegant restaurant.

Hvalstrand bad and Ingierstrand bad were the two most important, publicly accessible baths on either side of the Oslofjord from the interwar period and in the first decades of the postwar period. A steamboat was set up from the center of Oslo that ran shuttle services throughout the summer season.

Existing public baths were mostly used by wealthy people, who took a bath for the sake of cleanliness and health, while ordinary people bathed in the open air. This was a time when recreation and sports were seen as something that gave meaning to life, and Oslo's inhabitants wanted to get out of the city and into beautiful nature in search of "the good leisure life" as a result of most people starting to have more free time.

Eventually, the place became unprofitable, was bought by Asker Municipality and stood in disrepair until it was protected and restored in 1997. Now Hvalstrand Bad is operated as a restaurant during the summer months.

The sailing ships came with ballast, often in the form of round flint tubers, and had to get rid of this before unloading. The seabed and the beach below Bryggebakken are covered with such ballast stone.

It was hard work where the workers cut blocks of ice with special saws. Each block weighed around 160 kilograms. The ice blocks then had to be lifted into a chute of wood, and were sent down to the harbour. In the early years, the ice was shipped out in the winter without intermediate storage, but the demand was greatest in the summer and the ice began to be stored in ice houses and later in large open ice bins/ice stacks. We can see the rest of the foundation of such an ice bin here. This was a large pile of almost 2000 m2 that could hold 14-17,000 tons of ice and the ice stack went all the way up to today's main road. It was a makeshift construction that would store the ice from winter to summer, and the walls could be 4-8 meters high and were held in place with external logs to prevent the ice from falling out.

A chute had been made and a pier had been made into the bay so that the ice could be loaded onto a waiting ship. Sawdust was often used between the blocks to ensure that they did not melt during the long transport.

Ice exports contributed to prosperity for the farmers who owned ponds and ponds and sailboat owners along the coast. It was associated with great risk. Several ships were wrecked on the voyage as the ice could melt along the way and the weight could shift to the side and overturn the ship.