Step into a nostalgic and sensory experience of city life, trade and café culture, as it may have unfolded in Stavanger over 100 years ago.

With Stranden Colonial, the "backside" of the old merchant buildings comes to life – once façades with entrances to shops, offices, and apartments. This area will once again buzz with life, as Stranden Colonial offers freshly ground coffee and a sweet treat in a cosy little tea salon.

Stranden Colonial will be open during the museum’s summer opening hours.

The History of the Colonial Shop

The port city of Stavanger has imported exotic goods from abroad for hundreds of years. Coffee, tea, tobacco, sugar and wine arrived on ships from distant lands, were weighed, and sold in shops in the city centre.

At the turn of the 20th century, Nedre Strandgate was one of the city’s busiest shopping streets, lined with colonial shops that sold both local groceries and exotic goods from the "colonies" in other parts of the world.

These shops provided people with almost everything they needed. In social gatherings, coffee, tea and chocolate were served alongside vanilla-scented cakes, and Christmas baking wasn’t the same without syrup, cardamom and cinnamon. Milk, peas, flour and grains were also measured and sold. Colonial shops were also important social hubs where locals exchanged the latest news.