Continental Oslo

The history of Hotel Continental sounds like an old-fashioned fairytale about the children of a poor family who, through hard work and sheer talent, created a monument that has existed for over 100 years, and that will be with us for many, many years to come. It all began in 1860 with Caroline Boman, who was born in Sweden. Instead of emigrating to America as so many of her contemporaries did, she came to Oslo (then called Christiania) in 1887. Four years later she married Christian Hansen from Oslo, who was also from a poor family. By that time both of them had begun working in the restaurant trade, Christian as a waiter and Caroline as a cook at Oslo's Grand Hotel. The National Theatre opened in 1899, and on 12 December 1900 the Hotel Continental with its Theatercaféen opened just across the street from the National Theatre. It didn't take long before a saying was coined: “First came the theatre - then came the inn”. The hotel was owned by a brewery and was rented out to four different restaurateurs over the first nine years, with varying degrees of success. In 1909 Caroline and Christian Boman Hansen took over, and three years later they bought the hotel from the brewery. Christian Boman Hansen died in 1915, and thereafter Caroline ran the hotel on her own. Their son Arne had emigrated to America and been educated at Harvard. When the waiters at Theatercaféen joined a union and organised an “insurrection”, Caroline asked her son to come back to Norway and help her. Arne came back to Norway in 1927 with his American wife and 6-year-old daughter, Ellen. Until then he had not planned to run the Hotel Continental, but he went into partnership with his mother, and began to reorganise the business. He soon realised that the hotel's only chance of survival was expansion, so he bought two adjacent buildings, tore down one of them and built a new annex on the one left standing. This project was completed in 1931. As time passed, Caroline gave Arne increasing responsibility for running the hotel, in the knowledge that it was in good hands. When Arne died in 1953, his daughter Ellen continued the family tradition. Together with her husband, Caspar Brochmann, she once again expanded the hotel on the last available lot on the block. In 1960, 60 years after its inception, the Hotel Continental as we now know it, covering an entire city block in the heart of Oslo, was completed. Over the years Ellen Brochmann, the third-generation owner, left her personal mark on the Continental with a number of restoration and renovation projects. The hotel and its restaurants maintain a very high standard and are careful to preserve the old, valuable traditions. In 1985 the fourth generation, Ellen and Caspar Brochmann's daughter Elisabeth Caroline, took over the reins. The family tradition lives on in the best of health. *********

History and portraits in Theatercafeen Hotel Continental, with its 30 hotel rooms and its restaurant Theatercaféen, opened on 22 December, 1900. In 1949 Theatercaféen was rebuilt and redecorated in a style that represented a total break with its distinctive original look. Ellen Brochmann, the third-generation owner who assumed command of Hotel Continental in 1953, was not at all pleased with this state of affairs. Her dream was to reverse the modernisation process. In 1971 her dream of restoring Theatercaféen to its original glory finally became a reality, with very good assistance from architect Hans Gabriel Finne. Parts of the interior were still kept, and with help from lots of photographs it was possible to bring Theatercaféen back to it's original style. They also got inspiration by visiting Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm. Some special points of interest can be mentioned: The floor is made of 100 000 tiny pieces of linoleum. Building glass screens in front of the windows was an idea that originated in Copenhagen. The china used in the restaurant was designed by the architect, Finne, and manufactured by Figgjo Fajanse. The wall clock on the musicians' balcony is from London. On 13 April 1971, after a month of closed doors, meticulous planning and hard work, Theatercaféen could open its doors to its “new” look of the past, which it has maintained until today. New York Times: World's 10 Most Famous Cafés Joseph Heller wrote an enthusiastic essay about Theatercaféen in 1984, which was published in The Sophisticated Manner, the New York Times's travel guide. Theatercaféen has been on the New York Times list of the 10 most famous cafés in the world ever since. Portraits in Theatercaféen In 1924 the founder of the café, Caroline Boman Hansen, hit upon the idea of hanging portraits there. She bought 30 portraits from artist Henrik Lund, who had drawn his friends from the café. The first portrait-hanging ceremony took place after the café was closed one evening, with only a few people present. This was the largest group of pictures to be hung at any one time, but the most unpretentious of all the ceremonies. There are now 80 portraits on the walls of Theatercaféen, and each portrait-hanging ceremony is a major event. The pictures portray writers, authors, actors, musicians, composers and other prominent figures from Norway's cultural sphere. What all of the 80 people in the portraits have in common is that they are, or have been, regular guests at Theatercaféen. Loyalty towards the Continental is, namely, a prerequisite for having one's portrait hang on these venerable walls. Henrik Lund, Gösta Hammarlund, Pedro and Ulf Aas drew most of the portraits. But there are also portraits by Finn Graff, Nils Aas, Per Palle Storm, Arne Raknes, Knut Hermod Knudsen, Kristoffer Sinding Larsen, Jukon Gjelseth og Odd Nerdrum. Hotel Continental - Oslo

Jon Ovrehus until 09/1999