The claim
A Södermalm krog whose great room, under painted beams and a bowed window, was built in 1904 for Stockholm's licensed-victualling company and called Port Arthur. It took the older name Pelikan in 1969, from a house by Slussen that had been pulled down in 1931. Swedish home cooking at the tables, and a long bar beside them where a drink is served on its own.
What the records show
The 1664 the house prints belongs to another building in another part of Stockholm, and the house says so itself. Its history page has the wine-server Hans Georg Cron opening the cellar Pelikan on Österlånggatan in the old town in 1664, the krog moving to Svartmangatan in 1720 and on to Brunnsbacken by Slussen in 1733, where it traded for nearly two hundred years until the block came down in 1931. These rooms are a separate line, and the house and Swedish Wikipedia agree on it: Blekingegatan 40 was finished in 1904 to Sam Kjellberg's design and opened by Stockholms utskänkningsaktiebolag as the krog Port Arthur, and the vacant Pelikan name was given to it in 1969 by the state restaurant company that owned both. So the drinking here is recorded from 1904, the claim is graded as tradition, and the house is published outside the ranking because its trade at this address began long after 1750. The Stockholm City Museum's green grading of the building, which Swedish Wikipedia cites, was not read. Drink alone is served: the house's own bar page calls the big bar a watering hole to slip into on the spur of the moment, and its published hours run to one in the morning every day of the week.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1664 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1904 | Present building | Swedish Wikipedia and the house's own history, which both date the Blekingegatan building to 1904 |
| 1904 | First record of a drinking house here | Wikipedia |
What to look for inside
- Built in 1904 as the krog Port Arthur; renamed Pelikan in 1969
- The Pelikan name traced to a wine cellar of 1664 in the old town
- A painted beer-hall ceiling, and a bar that serves without a table
Visiting
Pelikan is in Stockholm, Sweden, at Blekingegatan 40, Stockholm. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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