Looking at Warsaw's skyline from the south over the past 25 years, it's visible that the city's central business district is shifting westwards. The big new towers are all west of the Palace of Culture, and more are rising.
The closure of the transversal railway line to trains coming up from Radom and their diversion northward around the west of the city centre gives me a new perspective on the Warsaw district of Wola. If, like me, you can't tell ulica Wolska from ul. Kasprzaka, knowing only that they are a pair of parallel thoroughfares running west out of the city centre, this is a good opportunity to learn more.
Today I had a meeting in the Warsaw Hub, the big new office located on Rondo Daszyńkiego, the new centre of gravity for offices. Normally, I'd have taken the train to W-wa Ochota and walked north from there. Now, I took the train to W-wa Wola and walked east from there.
Now, W-wa Wola used to be called W-wa Kasprzaka, being renamed in 2018 when the old W-wa Wola became W-wa Zachodnia Peron 8 (now W-wa Zachodnia Peron 9). The roads and pavements around the station and the junction with Aleja Prymasa Tysiąclecia are currently one great hole in the ground as the new tram line here is extended westwards. Result: an obstacle course for pedestrians, a major inconvenience for drivers.
Between Rondo Tybetu (naming this roundabout after Tibet had the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw hopping mad!) and Rondo Daszyńskiego is a stretch of road that was once home to light industry (a radio factory, a pharmaceutical plant), but this part of of Wola, Czyste, now is experiencing rapid change.
Below: typical architecture for the area, a communist take on Mid-Century Modern, the building of the Institute of Chemistry. I stand here puzzled by the 'H' in 'ICHF' and 'ICHO' until I realise that it's 'CH' as in Chemia. (Instytut Chemii Fizycznej/Instytut Chemii Organicznej. PAN = Polska Akademia Nauk - Polish Academy of Sciences) Note the PRL-era paving slabs.
Left: Marcin Kasprzak. He was a communist - so he was bad. But he was Polish - so he was good. But he shot dead four policemen - so he was bad. But they were Russian - so he was good. But he worked with Rosa Luxemburg - so he was bad. But he was backed by Józef Piłsudski - so he was good.
On balance, the long street named after him didn't get a new patron after 1989, unlike streets named after other communist organisers (Marceli Nowotko, Julian Marchlewski). And the statue remains.
What's more - there's another monument to Kasprzak on ul. Kasprzaka (below) - standing where stood his house, from where he set out to kill the Russian policemen. It was erected in his memory in 1950, on the 45th anniversary of his being strung up by the Tsarist occupant.
Left: you will have noticed the pink votive candle at the foot of the monument; people still come to pay their respect to the Firebrand of the Proletariat. Lying on the other side of the cyclepath, a zebra crossing was painted to its surface to ensure the mourners' safety in reaching the monument. Wonder what Kasprzak would have made of the Polish HQ of a French bank in the environs of his former family home...?
Below: the clump of buildings around Rondo Daszyńskiego, the face of the new Warsaw. Two buildings still going up, the heart of the financial district. In the foreground, the tram line swings round towards the camera, away from the line of ul. Kasprzaka, taking trams north up ul. Skierniewicka towards ul. Wolska, where they turn left and continue westwards towards Bemowo and Boernerowo. Once complete, they'll run straight through.
Below: completely at odds with its new neighbours, the old Polfa Warszawa plant is due to be sold, knocked down and redeveloped - as a complex of apartment buildings.
Left: Layer upon layer of Warsaw, from old brick to the futurist glass construction of the Spire, with all points in between. This is still a common sight in Warsaw, but in coming years old brick from before 1939 will either be knocked down or restored to its former glory, and most buildings built between 1945 and 2000 will eventually be torn down and the sites redeveloped
Below: Rondo Dash in all its new-found glory, and more new buildings to come on either side of the roundabout. In the centre, the Skyliner building and Towarowa towers rising to its right. In the background, the Warsaw Hub tower...
Below: looking west from the 26th floor of the Warsaw Hub. Now - you can't see the Palace of Culture from here, it's hidden behind Złota 44 ('Żagiel'), to its right, Varso tower now dominates the skyline. In the foreground, the vast building site that will become the Towarowa 22 mixed-use development with a series of 'stepped' skyscrapers here, each one taller than its neighbour, rising to the tallest one at 150m.
This time five years ago:
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli - review
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