Esplanaden

Today we were in Sundsvall, learning about the Left Party's strategic questions and talking points for the September election. One of our MPs was presenting the strategy and both presentation and presenter were inspiring.
Jan has written about that so I'll link to her blip for that, while I write about my picture here.
It's taken from inside the hotel looking across a street called "Esplanaden".  It runs through the very centre of Sundsvall, making navigation of the city simpler. Many older Swedish cities have an Esplanaden, often from the late 1800's. It's always a broad street with a park up the centre. When designed in 1889 it was partly ornamentation, showing how fine the new city was and partly it served the very practical purpose of being a firebreak. The reason for the new city was that the old one had burned to the ground the year before!! Wooden cities presented an obvious risk and 9000 people became homeless in a single day in 1888 after a spark from a steamer on the river set the city burning.
The new city was built very rapidly, as you can see in this picture, taken around 1890, and mostly in stone. However, at this upper end of Esplanden there were some very classy new wooden houses built.
The hotel I'm taking the photograph from is also a rather lovely building but very modern, something of a contrast to the houses across the road.