The old town street network around Stengade and the nearby lanes preserves some fine 16th and 17th-century merchant houses — the wealth that the Sound Dues brought to Helsingør is visible in the quality of the old buildings. Walking these streets gives a clearer sense of the prosperous medieval and Renaissance city than the castle alone.
Stengade itself is a pedestrian street lined with shops and cafés. The half-timbered buildings along Stengade and the adjacent Bramstræde date from the era when Helsingør was among the most commercially important cities in northern Europe. Several of the houses are listed buildings; their irregular facades and leaning upper floors make them considerably more interesting than most of the commercial street architecture that replaced them elsewhere.