Cirkusbygningen, Copenhagen--2009

Cirkusbygningen looks like it should translate as "circus building". (my Danish does not extend much beyond the equivalent of "Do you speak English, please?", and the names of various brands of beer.) Certainly it is the name given to the building on the street map in my guidebook for the Danish capital, there being no mention whatever within the text.

As you will see from the photos the structure lies within a pedestrianised area. It is near to the celebrated Tivoli gardens amusement park, and thus close to both the main railway station and the city square, which are on opposite sides of Tivoli.

Over the years, the building has been run (if not actually owned - I don't know) by both the Benneweis and Schumann families. Indeed there is quite a classic photo of the front of the place advertising the presence of clown Charlie Rivel during the Schumann days. Charlie's daughter Paulina married Albert Schumann. Katja Schumann (late of Big Apple Circus) is their niece, being the daughter of Albert's brother Max, and his wife Vivi.

However, the most recent circus to appear there is the German Circus Roncalli.

Despite the word "Cirkus" being prominent on the wall, these days the building is a nightspot, although it does feature circus-type acts. i am told that a condition for permission for change of use was that things should be maintained in such a state that it could be changed back to a circus. But when a danish circus proprietor inspected it with a view to presenting a Christmas circus, he felt the conversion would take 2 weeks, so was impracticable. For one thing, the stables have gone.

In its prime, there was a sinking ring enabling the presentation of water spectacles, as at Blackpool Tower Circus and Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, for example, both of these being in Great Britain. The mechanism exists still but, again, it would take some time to render it usable.

Part of the reason I reported on circuses in mainland Europe earlier in the year was to enable an American readership to see what's available on the opposite side of the Pond/Atlantic/Wet-Bit. Maybe to encourage a visit.

Should anybody consider making the trip to Denmark with the intention of seeing some circus, I recommend Copenhagen at the start of September. Traditionally 2 of the 3 major danish circuses (Benneweis and Dannebrog) are within the city limits, with the third (Arena) not far away. Not that it's guaranteed. if you're lucky, there will be a tenting show just over the water at Malmo in Sweden, there being a direct train link from Copenhagen.

The former circus building in Malmo is now the civic theatre. There is a model of it in the city's Theatre Museum (not far from the railway station), sinking ring and all.

Courtesy of John Cooper.