The area sur­round­ing the Hopfen­markt and Niko­lai Church was orig­i­nal­ly found­ed as Neustadt (or ‚new town‘) by Count Adolf III. in the 12th cen­tu­ry, but is part of Hamburg‘s Alt­stadt (or ‚old town‘) dis­trict today. The Hopfen­markt became the most impor- tant mar­ket in town dur­ing the 13th cen­tu­ry, boas-ting up to 900 stalls in its hey­day. It was par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant for beer brew­ers, who bought their hops here. How­ev­er, the destruc­tion brought about by World War II changed the urban land­scape in Hamburg‘s old­est part sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Between 1958 and 1963, the broad street cut­ting from east to west known as Willy-Brandt-Strasse and Lud­wig-Erhard-Strasse today was con­struct­ed, sev­er­ing direct con­nec­tions to the neigh­bour­hoods south of the new road. This large­ly dis­rupt­ed the qual­i­ty of stay in these parts of town. The City of Ham­burg has now decid­ed to rein­vig­o­rate the area. The new build­ing on Willy-Brandt-Strasse 69 is to be part of this plan, act­ing as a hinge con­nect­ing past and present, link­ing City and Spe­ich­er­stadt. The Hopfen­markt in front of Niko­laikirche is an essen­tial part of this renew­al. It can now be reached via a ground-lev­el cross­ing of Willy-Brandt-Strasse, at the height of the new build­ing. The for­mer cross­ing via the Cre­mon­brücke pedes­tri­an bridge was pulled down to make way for new build­ings, so that the Tichel­haus can be part of the revival of the neigh­bour­hood as a live­ly place with great qual­i­ty of stay.