Torgdragargränd

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Wooden gates in the western end of Torgdragargränd which were kept closed until 1981.

The sun reaches the alley for a short moment daily.

Seal of the Stockholm Masonry Master's Guild (Murmestare Embetet i Stockholm) in the eastern end of the alley

Torgdragargränd (Swedish: "Market Draughter's Alley") is an alley in Gamla stan, the old town in Stockholm, Sweden. Stretching from the street Västerlånggatan to the square Kornhamnstorg, it forms a parallel street to Tyska Brinken and Funckens Gränd

The alley was opened in 1981 with the present name commemorating the people working at the market next to the alley.^[1] The daily paper Dagens Nyheter arranged a naming contest in 1981, and the winning proposal, produced by Gunnar Rönn, a man working in the alley, referred to the people working at the market on Kornhamnstorg who used to literally 'draught' their goods and market stalls from the alley to the square every morning (called Torgdragare, literally: "Square draughters"). He also told the paper how these people used to locate dusky corners of the alley whenever they needed something stronger to drink than water, occasionally ending up sharing a diner, including herring, loaf, and schnaps, on a shutter placed upon the dustbins standing in the alley.^[2]

[edit] References

^ Béatrice Glase, Gösta Glase (1988). "Västra Stadsholmen", Gamla stan med Slottet och Riddarholmen, 3rd ed. (in Swedish), Stockholm: Bokförlaget Trevi, 84. ISBN 91 7160 823 0.
^ (1992) "Innerstaden: Gamla stan", Stockholms gatunamn, 2nd ed., Stockholm: Kommittén för Stockholmsforskning, 77. ISBN 91-7031-042-4.