Cars, cabs and a line 0 tram at the Nowy Świat – Aleje Jerozolimskie crossing, with the Gastronomia café on the right
The corner tenement house with the Gastronomia café at Nowy Świat and Aleje 3 Maja
The junction in the late 1940s, with war-damaged houses and early post-war traffic
Clearing the street at the junction while the Party House rises behind scaffolding
Trams and buses at the junction in the 1960s, with the Party House in the background
The roundabout with the artificial palm tree and the Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego building
The Charles de Gaulle roundabout with its palm tree, seen along Aleje Jerozolimskie
Before the war the crossing of Nowy Świat and Aleje Jerozolimskie was one of Warsaw's busiest corners, lined with tenement houses and cafés, with the Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego building completed on one corner in 1931. Most of the surrounding houses were destroyed during the war and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. In 1948–1952 the monumental Party House, seat of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, was built on the corner of Nowy Świat. After 1991 it became the Centrum Bankowo-Finansowe and housed the Warsaw Stock Exchange until 2000; since 2002 Joanna Rajkowska's artificial palm tree has stood in the middle of the Charles de Gaulle roundabout.