page_title: Westend, Copenhagen
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Westend, Copenhagen / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Westend complex at Vesterbrogade 65-67 in Copenhagen, Denmark
context_page_description: Westend is a street and Art Deco-style housing complex in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It links Vesterbrogade in the north with Mathæusgade and Otto Krabbes Plads in the south. It is accessed through a gateway in the building at Vesterbrogade 65–78 and is closed to car traffic in the other end.
context_section_description: Vesterbro was in the 19th century Copenhagen's principal entertainment district.  Prostitution was legalized in 1866. On 9 March 1877 the Ministry of Justice issued a Resolution About Police Control With Public Women in Copenhagen, introducing a system where matrons were licensed to operate "public houses". The police was authorized to refer the public houses to specific streets and Badevej became the principal brothel street in Vesterbro. The street was in 1886 renamed Knudsgade. In 1877, Copenhagen was home to a total of fifty licensed brothels with approximately 300 "public women". "Foreningen imod Lovbeskyttelse for Usædelighed", a branch of "La féderation britnniqve, Continentale et générale", was founded in 1894. Prostitutes were required to have individual addresses after brothels became illegal in 1901. A group of developers purchased a property further out on Vesterbrogade with the intention of creating a private street where prostitutes could operate from individual apartments. Construction began in 1903 but the plans were stopped by the so-called October Act which illegalized prostitution. The Westend complex became instead popular with actors and theatre people.
caption: The Westend complex seen from Vesterbrogade in 1919
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