Friday throwback: dating by bike in Copenhagen

Valentine's day may already have been and gone, but romance can strike on two wheels at any time of the year.  This week's Friday throwback comes from Copenhagen, in Denmark, where these well turned out couples are using a bike ride through the city as an opportunity for a quick cuddle in the late 1940s.

Photographed by Sven Türck, the image is from the Royal Denmark Library's archives shared on The Commons on Flickr which we've been exploring every week here at ibikelondon as part of our series of "Friday throwback" posts.

There's a happy contemporary twist to this story however.  Scenes likes the one above would have been common in cities across all of Europe throughout the '40s and '50s before the arrival of the mass motoring age when most people were scared off the roads.  However, the tables were turned in Copenhagen.  The photograph was taken on Stroget (pronounced Strollt), and here is what the same plaza looks like today:



The square was pedestrianised in 1962 and forms part of the longest pedestrianised shopping street in the world.  Considerate cycling is of course welcome, and the street forms the backbone of a skeleton of people-friendly spaces throughout the city.  If you wanted to recreated the tender moment in the first photo with your cycling loved one, you still can!  For a history of how Stroget came in to being - and the effect it had on the city - check out this timeline from the City of Copenhagen here.

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