Wrede passage
walkway in Helsinki, Finland
The Wrede passage (Finnish: Wreden pasaasi; also known as the "Old merchant alley", Finnish: Vanha kauppakuja, or the "Grandma tunnel", Finnish: Mummotunneli) is an entity formed by two stone buildings in Kluuvi, Helsinki, Finland. The name refers also to the merchant alley stretching throughout the block. The passage is formed by the Wrede house in the corner between Pohjoisesplanadi and Mikonkatu (Pohjoisesplanadi 35) and the Central house in the corner between Aleksanterinkatu and Mikonkatu (Aleksanterinkatu 46). The building entity represents Renaissance Revival architecture and was designed and partly commissioned by architect Karl August Wrede, and built in 1888 and 1892.
Name
Among architects, the entity is known as the Wrede passage, but its official Finnish name has been Vanha kauppakuja ("Old merchant passage") since a naming competition held in 1958. The name is spelled Wanha kauppakuja on top of the entrance. The passage itself is colloquially known as the "Grandma tunnel". It has terraces of several restaurants, which are said to be popular among middle-aged guests. The restaurants are maintained by Center-Inn, which was bought by HOK-Elanto in 2013.
History
Carl Ludvig Engel designed the block 95b onto reclaimed land from the former Kluuvinlahti bay from 1837 to 1838.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wrede passage” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.