Monday 15 April 2013

Witamy na Woli w Warszawie, nasz dom, Welcome to Wola Warsaw our home

Witamy or Welcome

Mosaic PR Warsaw's office

Mosaic PR Warsaw set up its office in Mirow, in Wola, a borough of the city with a rich history stained with tragedy, but with a huge tradition of artistry, enterprise, business and culture. 

In essence a mirror of the capital city of which it is a central borough.

Now, a fast developing area of the city, filled with luxury appartment blocks, the Hilton hotel, office buildings, home to the Warsaw Uprising museum and currently with 3 skyscrapers being built, it's a busy section of Warsaw.

Hilton Hotel convention and casino complex Warsaw


Mosaic PR works mainly with real estate companies, retailers and shopping centre owners, so we are of course interested in architecture, and the history of the city, and the people who worked and lived in the area where our office is sited. 


Norblin factory remains


Wola , and in particular Mirow, was the industrial workshop area of the city, with the famous iron, copper and brass factory of Troetzer and Company sited in ul Chlodna, in 1816  and later named Borman and Szwede which probably gave ul Zelazna (on it's other side) its name - Iron st. . The plant produced farm and fire firefighting equipment 

Norblins gilt mark  1914


On the other side of the street was a business owned by the descendants of the Troetzer company which produced steam cooling boilers backing on to ul Chlodna. 

Behind that is of course  the famous metal plating and industrial plant of Norblin, opened in 1824, in ul. Łucka. 

The neighbourhood developed in to an industrial area with residential streets arranged in flats around courtyards known as kamienica. Today some have been renovated in ul Chlodna, sadly others lie ramshackled, falling down in ul. Łucka, as does the site of Norblin itself.

The old Norblin factory awaits development.

Norblin factory with a view to our office building


 In front of  the Hilton hotel, in ul Grzybowska which our office overlooks, was a brewery. The brewery of Haberbusch and Schiele was built in 1840, and in 1968 became, Zakłady Piwowarskie w Warszawie, a state owned company. Through time it fell in to disrepair, but in 1992 it became Browary Warszawski SA, still a state owned company and was later sold to Heineken who closed the building.


Browary Warszawski


Older Warsovians, recall the old days of the hop beery ridden scent of ul Grzybowska as they walked to work in the morning. 

Not far from our office in ul Krochmalna, lived nobel prize winner Issac Bashevis- Singer, a Polish writer of acclaim, who painted vivid pictures of Warsaw life before World War 2.

Mirow, formed part of the Jewish, Ghetto in world war 2 , and was the site of the biggest massacre of civilians in Poland. The area previously was home to the Jewish community, their businesses and synagogues, and schools. Today it is borderlined by a metal boundary , showing the ghetto wall's outline, and many monuments to those who died are present.

Memorial marking the boundary of the Ghetto wall


The Iron gate or Zelazna Brama is now the name of an estate or osiedle, near the office, the monument on the junction of ul Chlodna and ul Zelazna,  marks the place for the bridge for people to cross in to the ghetto, a one way journey for too many. 

Here, a modern reconstruction of an iron gate has been constructed with slide show viewers, embedded in the gate's posts which show people, the horror of history .

Zelazna Brama memorial on ul Chlodna


The area is undergoing huge development, but is also home to much of Warsaw's hipster community, whose bars, cafes , restaurants, sit in old buildings, and the new modern buildings along with the new businesses here. The second line of the Warsaw metro is to open here at Rondo Daszynskiego.

Choldna 25 bar and hipster hangout

ul Lucka where the office is sited was named after the town Luck in western Ukraine, which was once part of Poland. A small street with a length of 600 meters but contains some of Warsaw's pre-war houses and ruined outbuildings, and was known by locals as  ul Grozny or "Terror street".

Ramshackle workshops and flats on ul Lucka


Initially, it had houses and gardens, with orchards with wooden outbuildings. Later, came workshops and factories. Ul Lucka in the interwar period was heavily developed and built up. During the Warsaw Uprising, the  Germans tried to demolish the street, right to the city centre, but they didn't manage it. However, most of the buildings were destroyed. After the war, the area was called, the Wild West, full of ruined houses and outbuildings. Today, the street has modern blocks, which greatly contrast with the few remaining old buildings.

Wall of the Norblin factory opposite luxury flats


Wola has seen much change but never died, and as the traditional old buildings provide a stark contrast with the modern appartment blocks, and skyscrapers, still industry and business in Mirow is alive and thriving. 

Now fashionable, trendy with its historical past, and tragic stains so well remembered and respected, Mirow and Wola are being reborn anew.

Street mural in Mirow on a Kamienica

Mosaic PR picked this area for it's office because of its close proximity to the centre, and because of it's connection with industry, craft, and history.  Also the tragedy the borough bears, that some thought would be it's death, is one of the reasons its alive and kicking today. That was another reason to be here, just to prove despite all, Mirow and its business traditions are here to stay.
  
How many communication agencies, could have their office in such a historical, cultural part of a city with a 5 star hotel, a casino, the site of a former brewery (sadly former according to our team ) Mirow's bustling, Hala Mirowska food market and have a noble prize winner's house around the corner ?

Hala Mirowska - Warsaw's finest food market


Analysing facts, statistics and historical data, whilst looking at the present, and seeing opportunity in the challenges of the future, is what Mosaic is all about . 

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning" - Albert Einstein.

So Mirow represented, all the traditional craftsmenship, toil and industry as well as artistry in its history and today is a new thriving borough with start ups and established businesses, and thats what Mosaic is today.

Our blog will cover some business oriented things, or just stuff we like, or thought about, or made us laugh. Even things which provoked us to carry on thinking. 

You can follow our blog, and you can find more out about Mosaic PR on our website at www.mosaicrealestatepr.com and you can find us and our office here 


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Mosaic PR Would like to thank :-




Rafal Jablonski of  Rzeczpospolita   http://www.rp.pl/artykul/405164.html?p=1








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