Iðnó

About Iðnó

Iðnó is a white timber house on the north shore of Tjörnin in central Reykjavík, beside City Hall, built by the Reykjavík Craftsmen's Association in 1897 and now a café and cultural venue. The name is short for iðnaðarmannahús, roughly "craftsmen's house", from iðnaður, the Icelandic word for industry and crafts.

Professional theater in Iceland started here. The Reykjavík Theatre Company was founded in the house the same year it opened and stayed until 1989, when it moved to the new City Theatre. Through most of the 20th century, Iðnó was where the town went for plays, dances, political meetings and concerts, so a surprising amount of Reykjavík's social history happened in these few rooms.

Today the restored house still looks much as it did in 1897. The café is open from 11:00 to 16:00, though hours shift when events are booked, and it costs nothing to walk in for coffee and cake by the windows over the pond. In the evenings, Iðnó hosts concerts, theater, readings and festival nights, with tickets sold per event.

You'll find it at Vonarstræti 3, a two-minute walk from Austurvöllur and the Parliament House. Give it 30 minutes for a coffee stop, or fold it into a loop around Tjörnin, which takes about half an hour on foot in any season. On a cold winter afternoon, it's one of the better places in the city center to warm up.