Ticking boxes

The Gröna Huset (Green House) at Tungelsta is, these days, partly a wonderful little pub/restaurant and largely apartments. However, it appears to have started life somewhere else. Possibly as a convenience store in Fors. The building was then moved to its present location after the railway came to Tungelsta in around 1901. But it’s not the only Tungelsta connection with green houses.

A thousand or so years ago, Vikings lived in and around Tungelsta. So claims a runestone discovered in a bridge in 1886 where it had been used as a foundation stone. This is according to Stefan Jansson. While we visited Tungelsta today, we didn’t see the runestone. Sadly.

A little later, in the 1950’s, Tungelsta was known for horticulture. In fact, there were around 70 businesses relating to horticulture. They started to appear when the trains arrived in town. And, according to the woman at Gröna Huset, one of the things that Tungelsta was mostly known for was a place full of greenhouses. Stefan Jansson mentions the nurseries and greenhouses throughout his blog and Flickr account.

Something else that the woman told us was the correct way to pronounce Tyresö. She also said that Tungelsta was known for doing Stockholm’s laundry. Stefan says there was a lot of laundry being done in Tungelsta, but doesn’t give much detail.

But we weren’t in Tungelsta for either greenhouses or dirty clothes. Our mission was to scope out a few houses and, basically, check out the town as a possible place to live. Mirinda had selected three houses to look at (from the street, not via a realo) so we drove around for a bit.

I thought all three were lovely, though one did stand out. It was yellow, had six bedrooms, a decent garden and was a 16 minute walk to the Coop. And, of course, the pub. That ticked a lot of Gary boxes, I have to say. All three were single floor as well. That’s another box ticked. And the train into Stockholm takes just over 30 minutes. More importantly, the nearest Systembolaget is a mere 16-minute bus ride. All ticked off boxes.

Of course, Tungelsta is only one in a number of Swedish town options and we’ll have to check out some others before making any kind of commitment. But, for now, Tungelsta is definitely a contender.

Above is the original station house. According to Stefan, an old stationmaster lived on the top floor after his retirement until, I assume, his demise.