The Old Harbour and Grandi district is Reykjavik's most dynamic neighbourhood — a former fishing harbour and fish-processing area that has been converted into a waterfront district of restaurants, museums, and the kind of creative-industrial spaces that emerge when fishing warehouses become too valuable to use for fish.
Grandi Mathöll, a food hall in a converted fish factory, concentrates the best of Reykjavik's food scene under one roof — Icelandic seafood, lamb, and the New Nordic cuisine that Iceland has adopted and adapted. The Marshall House (a converted herring factory) houses the galleries of Ólafur Elíasson, Living Art Museum, and the Kling & Bang gallery, creating a contemporary art hub. The FlyOver Iceland experience (a simulation ride over Icelandic landscapes) and the Whales of Iceland museum (life-size whale models in a cavernous warehouse) add family-friendly attractions.
The harbour itself remains partly working — fishing boats, whale-watching vessels, and the ferry to Viðey Island share the basin, and the fish market at the harbour (Kolaportið flea market, open weekends) sells dried fish, fermented shark, and the secondhand goods that Icelanders trade with the matter-of-factness of a nation that has been recycling since before the word existed.
Verified Facts
Grandi was formerly a fish-processing industrial district
Grandi Mathöll occupies a converted fish factory
The Marshall House hosts galleries including Ólafur Elíasson's
Kolaportið flea market operates on weekends
Get walking directions
Old Harbour, Grandi, Reykjavík
