The Guard’s House in Grjótaþorpið, at Garðastræti 23, is believed to have been built around 1845 by Guard Guðmundur Gissurason. The Grjótaþorp could be called the first suburb of Reykjavík, but poor people built their homes there on a slope west of Kvosin in downtown Reykjavik. The Guard’s House is probably the first wooden house built in Grjótaþorpið. It can be said that guards were the predecessors of police officers. They walked around the town and checked to ensure everything was OK, like alerting if there was a fire and being on the lookout for anything that could be considered abnormal.
The guards also had hourglasses and sang so-called watch verses every hour according to an old and good European custom so that the people of Reykjavík knew how the time was passing. Guðmundur Gissurarson and his family lived in this house, but he was Reykjavík’s guard from 1830 to 1865. The house was preserved in 2001. The Antiquities Preservation took over the building in 2008 from the City of Reykjavík for restoration, which was completed in 2010.
Photographs & text: Páll Stefánsson
Reykjavík 28/11/2022 : A7R IV, A7C : FE 2.5/40mm G, FE 1.8/20mm G
