IMAGES: LIBOR SVÁČEK; EVENUE PHOTOGRAPHY
Karlín
The riverside stretch of Karlín feels like
it should be the sort of soulless dockland
development that cities all over the world
try and fail to pitch as cool. The office
complexes of River City are showpiece
stone-and-glass affairs; and the residential
blocks next to them are carrot-like with
their deep orange walls giving way to
ostentatious green roof gardens. The park
here is a scrappy, scrubby affair, with
occasional bizarre sculptures, like a tower
formed of upturned bathtubs. And yet
there’s a welcoming vibe to the whole area.
As I explore, the loud guitar crunch of a
stoner rock band acts as a siren call.
It turns out to be the nightly turn at
Přístav 18600, a delightfully ramshackle
scrapper of an open-air bar, where beer is
served out of a shipping container, there’s a
big queue for hotdogs, and tyre swings are
strung up from the trees. In the playground,
a young couple sits on concrete pipes that,
for some unfathomable reason, have had
periscopes attached to them. Dogs and
pushchairs are in liberal supply, a sign of
what Karlín is becoming.
Karlín used to be deflated and forgotten,
never quite achieving the status of being
edgy. And when the great floods of 2002
caused carnage, it should have been a death
knell for the neighbourhood. Instead, the
disaster kick-started a rejuvenation. River
City is the most obvious example of this,
but old industrial sites got a makeover too.
Forum Karlín, a former steam boiler factory
turned concert venue, is one of the most
dramatically impressive.
There’s now a renewed appreciation
throughout Prague for Karlín’s long-
overlooked merits. Its location, next to the
New Town and the Vltava river, helps. The
streets are lined with proud-but-elegant
art nouveau buildings, and the twin-spired
Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in
lawn-covered Karlínské Square is an absolute
stunner. As a result, cool cafes, bistros
and wine bars have popped up. Luckily,
the neighbourhood is still more soul than
scene-y, and nowhere is this more apparent
than Kasárna Karlín.
This gigantic former barracks has been
transformed into an impressive cultural
hub, with galleries and studios in the upper
tiers. The huge courtyard is home to outdoor
movie screenings, photography exhibitions,
a beach volleyball court and some
tremendously weird art installations
— including one of a podgy unicorn on a
rusty plinth. This place symbolises the battle
for Karlín’s future: the three-year lease was
up in March. Will it be allowed to continue,
I wonder, or will the barracks be sold for big
money development?Art nouveau architecture in Karlín
BELOW: Eska, a trendy restaurant-
cum-bakery located in Karlín
LEFT: Bridges over the Vltava river,
the longest in the Czech RepublicMay/Jun 2020 45