CARSTENSEN'S PARTIES

Johan Bernhard Georg Carstensen was born on 31 August 1812. His father was a diplomat and Carstensen spent much of his childhood in the Near East. His schooling, however, took place in Denmark. 

In 1839, after years of traveling, Carstensen moved to Copenhagen permanently, where he published the periodical publications Portefeuillen and Figaro. It was through this work that he learnt how to start up popular entertainment. The subscribers to the publications were invited to big parties, where beautiful lighting, beverages, music and eventually fireworks created an awareness of Carstensen's periodicals. H.C. Lumbye was the conductor at many of the parties that took place in the King's Gardens, Classen's Gardens or at Christiansborg Palace's Riding Grounds. 

Party illuminations, known as Vauxhall in Danish, named after the Vauxhall Amusement Gardens in London, were a big part of the secret behind these parties, and Carstensen took both Lumbye and the lights with him when he established Tivoli and Vauxhall in 1843.

FAREWELL TO CARSTENSEN

Carstensen jined the war in Schleswig for a short period (1848-51). When he returned home he learnt that he was no longer required at Tivoli. The members of Tivoli's Supervisory Board felt that he had abandoned the project and that he had failed to ensure that Tivoli's licence was extended. It was most likely also significant that Carstensen was economically quite wasteful, both in his private life as well as in business. The development of ideas was his great strength, while the profitable running of a company was of no great concern to him. Another of his projects, the Winter Tivoli Casino in Amaliegade (1847) went bankrupt, but has since gone down in history as a vaudeville theatre and the birthplace of Denmark's first revues.

THE COMPETITOR

After the dispute with Tivoli, Georg Carstensen went to the Danish West Indies, where he had been given a job in the military. For a short period after the West Indies, Carstensen went to New York, where he designed a Crystal Palace together with the German architect Gildemeister for the World Fair in 1851. 

In 1855 Carstensen returned to Copenhagen and tried to create an establishment to rival Tivoli, the Alhambra in Frederiksberg, where the street name Alhambravej is the only reminder of the fiasco. The establishment was not completed during Carstensen's lifetime; he died on 4 January 1857 at age 44 and was buried in Garnison's Cemetery in Copenhagen.

MOORISH LUXURY

The large white palace with dome and minarets is currently called Nimb after the first restaurateur, Councillor Vilhelm Nimb, who lived there together with his wife Louise, who also was a cookbook author, and their daughters Henriette and Serina. 

The building, built in 1909, was designed by the then director of Tivoli, architect Knud Arne Petersen in Moorish style. Moorish or Arabic themes are familiar characteristics of Tivoli's design. Just as Chinese style lures exotic architecture with adventure and exciting experiences, so are we almost transported into a world which is very different to ours.

The building contains rooms and a beautiful bar on the first floor. On the ground floor there are several restaurants and the luxury Suite Louise, which has its own terrace leading out to Tivoli.

THE BAZAAR

In connection with the renovation of the building in 2008, the facade was moved 3.5 metres further into Tivoli than previously. Similarly the dome was also moved. It was a necessary manoeuvre to make room for modern conditions in the old house. There are almost 4,000 electric light bulbs on the facade. 

The Nimb building was originally known as the Bazaar and was the third building of its kind on that location. Already in his licence application, Tivoli's founder Georg Carstensen wrote that Tivoli should include a Bazaar, with the aim of selling arts and crafts. And thus it did. The Bazaar (built in 1843) also housed Tivoli's only restaurant with hot food. 

The first Bazaar building in so-called Chinese style burnt down in 1862. The following year, a new building was ready, exhibiting the same exotic style and with the same facilities, namely a restaurant and shops.

Nimb's predecessor, The Bazaar from 1863, was demolished in 1908 as a result of changes to Bernstorffsgade and the construction of the present Central Station in Copenhagen. Tivoli got its present border to the west. 

In the mid-1920s, the corporation of Copenhagen (the municipality that owned the Tivoli grounds at the time) requested that Tivoli's facade towards Bernstorffsgade be harmonised. Nimb's stucco facades, the Roller Coaster's peaks, Cafe No. 7 and the view into the Merry Corner of Tivoli were not an appropriate sight for the city's guests when they left the Central Station. 

Professor Anton Rosen made a continuous facade, which also resulted in a minimalistic plastering of Nimb's facade and the construction of the long, grey wall from the entrance facing the Central Station to the corner of Tietgensgade. At the same time, the Roller Coaster lost its peaks. 

From 1915 to 2012, the Inspector's Lodge/The Villa stood on the corner of Bernstorffsgade and Tietgensgade. It was originally built as a residence for Tivoli's senior operations manager, the Inspector, but when it was demolished in 2013, due to the enlargement of the Merry Corner, it housed the Tivoli offices.

Boblespringvandet (The Water Fountain) in front of Nimb was established in 1961. Garden architect Eigil Kiær was responsible for the design. It is said that it was Professor Niels Bohr, who came upon the idea together with Kiær. They were allegedly having tea in Carlsberg's honorary residence, looking at an aquarium, when Bohr commented that it looked like a fountain of water from an oxygen apparatus, which was bubbling wildly. 

In 2009, the landscaped gardens around the fountain were renewed and adapted to suit the Moorish style of the Nimb building. Among other things, turquoise glazed tiles were used in the paving to simulate the cooling canals traditionally used in Arabic gardens. Landscape architect Pia Stets was responsible for the renewal.