Dovrehallen, Oslo — dated 1900

The claim

A brown house on Storgata, above the cellar where a variety hall of the same name opened at the turn of the last century. The theatre ran until about 1950 and the Oslo student society had the rooms until 1971; the restaurant upstairs was fitted out in the early 1950s and keeps its photographs of Hollywood actors. Norwegian home cooking, a serving licence, and live music for dancing three nights a week.

What the records show

Two publishers disagree about the year, and this page prints both. Norwegian Wikipedia has the hall opening on the second day of Christmas in 1900 and calls it a variety stage and a popular licensed drinking place, running as a theatre until about 1950. Oslo byleksikon, the city's own encyclopedia, says the place of entertainment existed from 1901 to 1950, that it opened in the cellar, and that the commercial block itself went up in 1898 to Halfdan Berle's design. Neither cites a licence or a newspaper of the year, so the claim is graded as tradition. What matters more to a reader is where the drink is served now: Oslo byleksikon records that the restaurant carrying the name is on the floor above, fitted out early in the 1950s and hung with photographs of Hollywood actors, and that the beer bar on the ground floor is called Dovrestua. The rooms in use are therefore half a century younger than the claim, which is why the house is published outside the ranking. Between 1952 and 1971 the hall was the Oslo student society's club, and a dance restaurant with three bars traded here until its owner's companies failed in 2003. It trades: OpenStreetMap maps it as a pub, its own site publishes a serving licence, free entry, an age limit of twenty and live music for dancing on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and the Norwegian company register holds Dovre Restaurant AS at Storgata 22, registered in October 2012 and neither bankrupt nor struck off when the register was read in September 2026.

Dated evidence for Dovrehallen, earliest first
Year	What	Source
1900	Claimed founding	Local history
c.1898	Present building	Oslo byleksikon, which dates the block to 1898 and names its architect

What to look for inside

A variety hall in the cellar from 1900 or 1901, depending on which account you read
The Oslo student society's club from 1952 to 1971
A brown restaurant upstairs, over the beer bar Dovrestua

Visiting

Dovrehallen is in Oslo, Norway, at Storgata 22, Oslo. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

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