Helsinki has turned this square into a huge alfresco restaurant

For diners, it means a safe dining environment in an iconic location. For businesses, it means more space and more custom at a pretty tough time. Helsinki has come up with an ingenious way to encourage locals to start eating out again, by transforming its iconic Senate Square into a giant alfresco restaurant.

_{Photograph: Torikorttelit / Camilla Bloom}

The local authorities invited 16 popular bars and restaurants to open secondary outlets in wood cabins on the huge central square, which is overlooked by the city’s towering cathedral. Diners can enjoy artisan pizza, Finnish pickled herring, tapas, hotdogs and an array of hearty breakfasts from 8am to 11pm, while bars serve cocktails and craft beer until 10pm.

_{Photograph: Torikorttelit / Camilla Bloom}

The design, by Linda Bergroth, was inspired by allotment gardens, with cabins from the Finnish capital’s Christmas market reused as lookalike sheds. The tables and chairs – some 480 of them – are surrounded by around 200 planter boxes (many of which are being used to grow herbs).

_{Photograph: Torikorttelit / Camilla Bloom}

The raised garden beds are intended to create clear paths across the square, allowing for the safe flow of visitors and providing ample space between tables to ensure social distancing. On its unveiling, Jan Vapaavuori, the mayor of Helsinki, said the project would be a ‘safe, exciting and communal summer oasis in the heart of the city’. Right now, it certainly looks that way.

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