Ruin Bars began as an experiment,a bar set up in an abandoned building offering affordable drinks for the young and creative crowd in Budapest Hungary
In the early 2000s, the inner part of the VII District was made up of crumbling, abandoned buildings. Once the site of the Jewish ghetto, the historic Jewish Quarter became dilapidated in the decades following World War II, after the deportation of 10,000s Jews. In 2002, the guys behind Szimpla opened up the very first venue on Kertész utca – where you’ll find the Szimpla Café today. However, the real kick happened in 2004, when Ábel Zsendovits and his friends decided to gamble on a condemned building complex on Kazinczy street, which marked the start of the legendary ruin bar we all know and love became a bohemian hub after the crumbling building got spruced up with local design and vintage, mismatched furniture. Its chaos and eclecticism has turned it into one of the world’s most famous also set a trend and a movement for alternative spaces. Other ruin bars opened up in the neighbourhood. However, while ruin bars popped up all around the city in abandoned plots and derelict spaces, some opening for a single summer only to close the next year, the spirit of the ruin bar gained the early days of the ruin bar, many feared they would get closed down – especially in the VII District, which made for potential prime real estate. However, eventually ruin bars became an iconic part of the cityscape, so much that people would come to Budapest especially to come drink in these crumbling watering holes. More bars popped up, like Instant and Fogas Ház. The ruin bar also took a commercial turn, where rather than opening up a counter-cultural space where the creative underground could come for a ruin bars started their life as with their grungy and gritty look, with crumbling plaster and the graffiti laden walls that went well with the mismatched furniture.
Size: 4592px × 3448px
Location: Budapest Hungary Eastern Europe
Photo credit: © Brenda Kean / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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