Wednesday 16 May 2012

Stortingsgata, Oslo


Stortingsgata is a street in the centre of Oslo which stretches from Wessels place at the Parliament of Henrik Ibsen's gate at the Royal Palace . It received its present name in 1865, the year before the building was opened, before it was called the Drammensveien. The southern part is dominated by shops, restaurants and hotels, to the north runs along Stortingsgata Eidsvolls place and the National Theatre .

Lowry refers to the street in his novel Ultramarine when the novel's protagonist Dana Hilliot is thinking of girlfriend Janet Travena and their time in Oslo; "The geraniums are out: Ibsen, the author of Ghosts, looks sternly down the Storlingsgaten (sic Stortingsgata) ." (Pg. 68). Lowry most probably walked down the street on his possible visit to National Theatre on his 1931 trip to Norway.

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