During the past 50 years Skövde has changed a lot, and this becomes very clear when you look at old photographs – sometimes it even feels as if you are in an entirely different city! A town has to change to develop, and sometimes that means that some buildings must be torn down to leave space for new ones. When it comes to Skövde, after working with this series and looking at an infinite number of old pictures, I think that way too many houses were allowed to decay and become a victim for the excavators.
Anna Warner
In 1937 we lost an entire block in central Skövde to the fire. Even though a lot of decades have passed since then, the block is still called “The burnt plot”.
At the time of the fire there was a big brick building at the plot that hosted a number of companies. Among them you could find a furniture factory, a coffee roastery and a cheese warehouse.
In the yard there was also a residential house made by wood with seven apartments that also was destroyed in the fire.
It’s likely that the fire started in the boiler room, and the fire fighters could not stop the fire. In 1939-1940 a new apartment building was built on the spot. It was torn down in 1993, and since then the plot is a gravel parking lot with a, for now, uncertain future.