Damstredet (Oslo)

Damstredet - narrow and curved street in Oslo , St. Hanshaugen district .

The quirky 18th-century wooden homes of the Damstredet district and the nearby Telthusbakken are a nice change of pace from the modern architecture of the city centre. Once an impoverished shanty town, Damstredet has become a popular residential neighbourhood for artists. To get there, walk north on Akersgata and turn right on Damstredet gate. Telthusbakken is a little further up Akersgata, also on the right.

The buildings along Damstredet are low wooden houses built between 1810 and 1860. The first house, Solberg, current address Damstredet 1, was erected in 1756 by the sculptor Ole Meyer. His nephew, the sculptor Andreas Hansen Meyer, took the house in 1767 and his son Ole, also a sculptor, built a new building in 1838 . His friend, writer and poet Henrik Wergeland, then still a newlywed, moved here and spent two most productive years here before moving to the cave in 1841. Solberg later became the home of the architect Heinrich Ernst Schirmer and later Major General and Minister of Defence (1868-1872) Niels Christian Irgens.