Tales of the Table · Lost Tables · Fríkirkjuvegur 7 · 1960–1971
Glaumbær: the ice house that became Reykjavík's hippie temple
The National Gallery of Iceland by the pond looks respectable enough today. Sixty years ago the same building was the loudest, smokiest place in town.
It was built in the early 1900s by the merchant Thor Jensen as an ice house beside Tjörnin. In 1960 it became the Stork Club, where Lúdó sextettinn played to nearly 300 guests downstairs and the Miss Iceland pageant was staged – but the club went bankrupt within about a year.
In its place came Glaumbær, and through the sixties it was the headquarters of Reykjavík's beat and hippie scene: two floors, narrow corridors, two stages and the bands everyone wanted to hear.
In the early hours of a December night in 1971, just after closing, fire gutted the timber-lined interior – the band Náttúra lost all its instruments. Musicians campaigned for a rebuild for about two years, but the shell went to the National Gallery instead, which opened there in 1987. Next time you walk past, listen carefully.
Sources: