David Whitley finds an old cotton town reinventing itself in a series of ridiculously improbable ways.
Tourism in Tampere
Oh to have been a fly on the wall when the good people of Tampere were deciding how to transform their industrial city into a tourist magnet. It could only have taken the form of a drunken pub conversation between people with incredibly small ranges of interest.
And, instead of humouring each other, they decided to take on absolutely everyone’s idea and make it happen.
Consequently, the city dominated by red-brick chimney stacks has become a little bit of paradise for anyone with a sense of the absurd.
Tampere’s bizarre attractions
The proposal for an unnervingly thorough museum about Lenin got waved through. As did the one for a wacky library where the basement is devoted to sinister Finnish cartoon characters.
In contrast, one chap’s request for a bit of space to fill with lie detectors, eavesdropping equipment and poison-tipped umbrellas seemed relatively normal.
And so it must have continued, long into the night, until the library was supplemented with a room full of rocks and minerals, a Hall of Fame was constructed for favoured Finnish ice hockey players and museums were devoted to shoes, coffee cups and refrigeration.
The Finlayson Centre
There’s no better place to start on this tour of the utterly ridiculous than the Finlayson Centre. A giant former cotton factory complex, it was founded by a Scottish industrialist in the 19th century, became the first building in Northern Europe to have electric lighting and now it is, well, weird.
When the cotton industry went into terminal decline, the building was a huge blot on the horizon; a juggernaut without a load. So it was decided to make use of it, making it into a public space. That it is largely full of food outlets from across the Atlantic and the achingly-cool minimalist offices of two-bit media enterprises is beside the point; it has become a hip hang-out for those who need coffee like they need oxygen.
Tampere’s Spy Museum
The real fun, though, comes downstairs, in what proudly proclaims itself to be the world’s only Spy Museum. A superb combination of history, story-telling and gadgetry, this underground lair is packed with Cold War intrigue, inspired ploys and sinister monitoring equipment.
Upon entrance, visitors are laden down with a huge folder of explanatory notes that is way beyond the usual half-heated leaflet. Such in-depth dossiers are an unexpected feature of Tampere – everywhere doles out these epics, whether they’re explaining the relationships between different Moomin trolls or describing Lenin’s personal artefacts.
Within the reading material are potted biographies of famous spies – from the inspiration for James Bond to treacherous double agents and Mata Hari. A more surprising inclusion is Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the scouting movement.
Apparently he was a British agent ho posed as a butterfly collector and had a penchant for disguising vital maps and plans on the wings of his colourful specimens.
But, let’s face it, no-one comes to a spy museum to read about derring-do and frightful deceit – especially when there’s the opportunity to play at being 007.
Being James Bond
Whether it’s firing laser guns at enemy agents, stalking people in blackened tunnels through peepholes or hunting behind maps for secret rooms, the whole thing is clearly set up for the 20 to 60-year-old child market. Heck, there’s even a spy test with which potential agents can assess just how cunning they are.
Amongst the special parachutes, secret-concealing rings and cipher decoding devices are a few pieces of technology that budding undercover operatives can get to grips with. There are voice manipulators, testable fingerprint and combination locks, plus invisible ink pens – a slightly better option than the ancient practice of writing on slaves’ heads and waiting for the hair to regrow.
Most disturbing of all are the two computers set up to capture e-mails. That it is so simple to rig up is a little worrying.
Moomin Valley
If that’s disturbing, then Moomin Valley (under the oddly-designed library, next to the stultifyingly dull mineral collection) is positively frightening. The Moomins are the creation of Finnish author Tove Jansson; pudgy, ghostly trolls surrounded by a cast of characters and creatures that wouldn’t look out of place in an Edvard Munch painting. Down in the almost pitch black basement, there are models of the characters getting up to adventures in invariably bleak landscapes. One is described as such:
“Moominpappa and his friends once got an invitation to a real big feast, The Autocrat’s 100th year birthday party. The Autocrat lives in a desolate land where one could not think of reaching.”
And, yes, this stuff is aimed at children – even the miniature beasts wielding guns and being chained to walls. Those not acquainted with the books and comic strips inevitably emerge with a shudder and hunted stare.
The waterways
A walk along the waterways is necessary afterwards. Rapids, which used to power the mills, flow through the centre of town.
It becomes pretty clear that Tampere is the grit in a pearl – a resolutely old-style industrial town surrounded by lakes and waterways. A stroll alongside them offers an alternative to the scattergun dotting of bizarre attractions.
But only for a while – after all, who wants to stay outside when there are rows of ice hockey masks and Lenin’s favourite sofa to lighten the mood?
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