Tales of the Table · Tales of the Table
Bárubúð (Báran) (1899–1945) – Lost Tables
The sailors' union Báran, one of Iceland's first trade unions, built its own hall by Tjörnin in 1899, and from 1902 it was known as Bárubúð. Holding about 300 people, it quickly became one of the town's main rooms for meetings, concerts and dances, with choirs, the opera singer Pétur Á.
The sailors' union Báran, one of Iceland's first trade unions, built its own hall by Tjörnin in 1899, and from 1902 it was known as Bárubúð. Holding about 300 people, it quickly became one of the town's main rooms for meetings, concerts and dances, with choirs, the opera singer Pétur Á. Jónsson and Oscar Johansen's band among those who performed. During the 1930 Alþingi millennium celebrations Columbia's engineers recorded a long series of 78 rpm records in the hall, praising its acoustics. Public entertainment ended after the football club KR bought the house in 1929, and the British army requisitioned it as a store in 1940. KR got it back in ruins in 1945, the city bought it and tore it down that summer, and the plot was set aside for a city hall.
Reykjavík City Hall (Ráðhús Reykjavíkur) stands on the site
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