Kødbyen, Copenhagen

Kødbyen is Copenhagen’s meat district, a working neighbourhood of Vesterbro positioned between the railway lines leading to Central Station and Sønder Boulevard. Its buildings divide the area into the White, Grey and Brown Kødby, named for their dominant building colours. The oldest section is the Brown Kødby, dating from 1883.

Since about 2000, its former industrial spaces have become a creative quarter filled with galleries, art cafés, nightlife, studios and architecture firms. Its most striking historical reminder is Øksnehallen, an exhibition venue that began as a cattle hall capable of holding 1,600 animals before slaughter. The White Kødby is a 400 by 600 metre group of modernist buildings designed by city architect Poul Holsøe and completed in 1934.

It still accommodates meat-related businesses, including a wholesale warehouse and Copenhagen Hospitality College, while also drawing cultural, design and food enterprises. The smaller Grey Kødby retains low-scale meat production alongside restaurants, homes and offices. Across the district, the old trade in animals and food remains visible in the buildings, even as creative life has taken over many of the spaces.