Dmitrovsky Square, Stremyannaya St., Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191025
"Elven" or "Elfish" garden got its name from the nearby café "Elf." In the 1980s, the café and the square were meeting places for creative people — representatives of the Leningrad underground. Artists, poets, rock musicians, philosophers, and simply hippies gathered in the square. Among them were Viktor Tsoi, Boris Grebenshchikov, and Alexander Bashlachev.
Today, a commemorative plaque and a signpost remind of those legendary times. The arrows on the signpost point to iconic places where the informal crowd used to gather. For example, it provides information about the direction to the legendary café "Saigon," the Rock Club, or the Rotunda.
The signpost was restored by St. Petersburg tour guide Sergey Nakonechny — earlier this year, the post was first knocked down and then disappeared. The author of the updated signpost not only returned this "attraction with attractions" to its place but also added new addresses — John Lennon Street, the Fish Fabrique club, "Kostyl," and the "Kamchatka" boiler house.
The post with the signposts appeared in the square only in 2009 — at that time, the green zone was planned to be handed over for development, but local residents concerned about the fate of this informal place organized several community clean-ups and rock concerts in its defense, after which the construction work was abandoned.
Sources:
Fontanka River Embankment, 5, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191023
Nevsky Ave., 49/2, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191025
Dmitrovsky Square, Stremyannaya St., Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191025
15 Blokhina St., Saint Petersburg, Russia, 197198
Saint Petersburg, Kirochnaya 8 lit V, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191028
Ligovsky Ave., 47, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191040
