Vester Voldgade

Via an extra-wide sidewalk on the sunny side, special paving and landscaping, you are gently guided between two of Copenhagen’s central meeting places, BLOX and City Hall Square. Restaurants and benches invite you to stop along the way.

To walk along Vester Voldgade, it’s hard to imagine that only a few years ago it was a congested four-lane thoroughfare.

Transformed in 2013, Copenhagen reclaimed the central city street that connects Jarmers Plads, City Hall and the city’s harbour waters.

With its broad promenades, protected cycle lanes and three recreational squares, it’s now become a revitalised and light boulevard that prioritises pedestrians and cyclists over cars.

Integrating subtle Nordic materials and playful landscaping, Vester Voldgade’s design assigns the widest pavements, public seating areas and tree rows on the sunny side of the street.

Removing car parking from this side freed up a lot of space, which is used by cafés and restaurants towards City Hall and residents and school children towards the harbour waters. An urban forest can now be found by City Hall, and there are fixed table tennis tables opposite Den Classenske Legatskole, for example.

At Dantes Plads, undulating pavements create delicate, rolling hills – a perfect space for parkour and skateboarders or simply an elevated perch on which to enjoy the afternoon sun.

As you head towards the harbour waters, Vester Voldgade opens to spectacular BLOX, home of Danish Architecture Center, and a view towards the iconic copper bridge tower of Langebro.