Icewear restores the oldest store on Laugavegur

Reykjavík's retail history began at Laugavegur 1

Icemart, operated by Icewear, has been housed at Laugavegur 1 since 2015. Icewear is now restoring the building in collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Agency of Iceland.

Click here for the Icelandic version.

The oldest commercial building on Laugavegur

The street Laugavegur holds a special place in the nation's fight for independence. Icelandic merchants began trading there as a direct response to foreign control of the Kvos district, and the street has never stood still since. Buildings have been altered, moved, or demolished, and new ones built in their place. Today it holds examples of nearly every architectural style known in Iceland over the past 140 years.

Few buildings on the street carry more history. Laugavegur 1 is among Reykjavík's oldest structures, the second oldest still standing east of the stream. Once one of the country's grander residences, it was home to powerful men for nearly half a century.

1848

German carpenter and painter Gustav Ahrenz builds Laugavegur 1, the first house built on the street. Ahrenz had previously worked on the expansion of the Cathedral (Dómkirkjan) and also built Lækjargata 4, now standing at Árbær Open Air Museum, and the Dutch mill in Bakarabrekka. Initially numbered 2B on the Arnarhóll plot, the house is considered one of the country's larger buildings of its time, when most people still lived in turf houses. Laugavegur 1 is built of timber framing, filled in with brick and rubble stone, clad in timber on the outside, with square stone slabs on the roof.

1850

High Court Judge Jón Pétursson, later Chief Justice, buys the house and moves in with his family. For the next half century, the house is known as "Assessorshúsið."

1864

Judge Jón adds a small extension to the north side of the house, a change that is still evident in later years.

1898

By the end of the century, the house has been modernized. The old six-pane windows have given way to cross windows, a triple cross window now sits on the front facade, and corrugated iron has replaced the timber cladding. The stone roof slabs, however, remain well into the 20th century.

1903

A shop moves into the building, the first of its kind on Laugavegur. This marks the beginning of an unbroken retail history that continues to this day.

1915

The store Vísir begins operating at Laugavegur 1, remaining there continuously for a century.

2015

Vísir closes after a hundred years of continuous operation at the same location. Retail continues in the building, however, as Icemart moves in, and Laugavegur 1 remains, to this day, the street's first and oldest commercial building.

Looking ahead

In collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Agency, the building is being restored with respect for its history. The original house will be allowed to shine once again, while a new building rises at the back of the lot, with retail space on the ground floor and basement, and guest apartments on the second floor.

So begins a new chapter in the building's story, one where past and future meet, and Laugavegur 1 continues to be part of a living commercial street.