Our story

In every great city, there are certain places where its history is shaped. In Helsinki, those places have long been what is today the restaurant À La Kämp and Kämp Bar. The story of these spaces is, at its heart, the story of Helsinki itself.

The opening of Carl Kämp's hotel in 1887 brought to Helsinki a modern European grand hôtel that helped shape the city that developed around it. From the outset, the bar and restaurant of Kämp became the natural gathering place for the city’s elite. Cultural lions, movers and shakers, and statesmen in Helsinki society adopted Kämp as their own. After Finland secured its independence, Kämp evolved from an exclusive meeting place into a national institution. Or, as it was described in the hotel’s 50th anniversary chronicle: “The meeting place for influential souls in these parts, from all walks of economic and intellectual life.”

Throughout the centuries, the walls of À La Kämp and Kämp Bar have witnessed the unfolding of Finland’s cultural and political life. Take, for example, the young artists and writers of the Symposium Circle, a spirited group tied to the liberal and nationalist “Young Finnish” reform movement between 1892–1895. Around the bar tables at Hotel Kämp, they championed progress and expression, embracing a new urban culture that reflected a changing nation. The inner circle included painter Axel Gallén and his closest friends, such as composer and conductor Robert Kajanus and composer Jean Sibelius. In addition to this trio, the evening sessions at Kämp were attended by other young artists, representing the coming cultural elite of the nation.

The restaurant and bar was also home to the legendary “Lemon Table”, a circle of well-to-do gentlemen and regulars united by shared taste, wit, and refinement in the early 1900s. Though they hailed from different fields, they shared an outlook that mirrored Kämp itself—sophisticated, worldly, and distinctly Helsinki. Among them were the central figure and wealthy councillor John Grönlund, as well as businessman Axel Ekström, publisher Reinhold von Willebrand, ophthalmologist Albert Nordman, tourism pioneer Ernst Lampén, and artists Eero Järnefelt and Väinö Blomstedt.

During the Second World War, Hotel Kämp was filled with international journalists and became a vital hub for relaying Finland’s story to the wider world. When peace returned, Kämp blossomed once again—its dining rooms and bar regaining their place as the heart of Helsinki’s social life—though only for a short period. The first chapter of Kämp’s history came to a close in the 1960s when the original building was demolished. In its place rose a new structure, deliberately echoing the façade of the old hotel—a respectful nod to its predecessor—though its rooms now housed a major commercial bank.

Axel Gallén, “Symposium” (1894). Pictured at Kämp are the artist himself (standing, top left), Robert Kajanus (centre), Jean Sibelius (right), and composer Oskar Merikanto.