This district is enclosed by the Amstel in the east, Stadhouderskade in the north, Hobbemakade in the west and the Amstelkanaal in the south it's actually a large island connected to the rest of the city by 16 bridges. The district's name, 'the Pipe' (originally the 'YY neighbourhood'), presumably reflects its straight, narrow streets that are said to resemble the stems of old clay pipes, but nobody really knows. There are a surprising number of attractions for an area that has so often been derided as the city's first 19th century slum.
Its shoddy tenement blocks, some of which collapsed even as they were being built in the 1860s, provided cheap housing not just for newly arrived workers drawn by the city's industrial revolution, but also for students, artists, writers and other poverty stricken individuals. In the 1960s and 1970s, as many of the working class
inhabitants left for greener pastures, the government began refurbishing the tenement blocks for immigrants from Morocco, Turkey, the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname. Now these immigrants are also moving out and the Pijp is attracting a slightly wealthier breed of locals who are doing up apartments and lending the neighbourhood a more gentrified air.
In the past as now, the Pijp has often been called the 'Quartier Latin' of Amsterdam thanks to its lively mix of people labourers, intellectuals, new immigrants, prostitutes (in the city's other and very depressing redlight district along Ruysdaelkade opposite Hobbemakade), and now an increasing number of higher income professionals.
This interesting array is best viewed at the Albert Cuyp market, Amsterdam's largest and busiest market, Monday to Saturday along Albert Cuypstraat. The emphasis is on food of every description and nationality but clothes and other general goods are on sale too, often cheaper than anywhere else, 11 you want to experience the 'real' Amsterdam at its multicultural best, this market is not to be missed. As always at busy markets, beware of pickpockets.
The surrounding streets hide cosy neighbourhood cafes and small (and usually very cheap) restaurants that offer a wide range of cuisines.
Many tourists head for the Heineken Museum (Ph: 523 94 36) at Stadhouderskade 78, still commonly known as the Heineken Brewery. Tours of the former brewery complex are offered at 9.30 and I I am weekdays all year, and from I June to 15 September extra tours are laid on at I and 2.30 pm. A token f2 donation to charity is collected at the door. The visit ends with a beer 'tasting' session at which several glasses per person may be consumed (they aren't stingy), and the green Heineken baseball caps sold at the exit for f7.50 make great souvenirs. Heineken's Web site is www.heineken.nl.
The brewery closed in 1988 due to innercity congestion and since then the building has been used only for the tours and administration; the company's directorate is in the low key premises across the canal.
Heineken beer is now brewed at a larger plant in 's Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch.) in the south of the country that opened in 1950, and since 1975 also at the largest brewery in Europe at Zoeterwoude near Leiden. The Heineken tours are a great favourite among beer swilling backpackers who often come several times during their stay. if you can prove it's your birthday you get a free Delft blue beer mug.
South of Albert Cuypstraat is the Sarphatipark, an English style park named after the energetic l9th century Jewish doctor and chemist Samuel Sarphati (1813 66). His diverse projects (a waste disposal service, a slaughterhouse, a factory for cheap bread, trades and business schools, the Amstel Hotel, a mortgage bank) exasperated the dour city council, though many of these ventures survive to this day.
The street along the south side of the park is Ceintuurbaan, a traffic artery that holds little of interest except the so called Kabouterhuis (Gnome House), near the Amstel at No 251 255. Its whimsical woodwork facade incorporates a couple of gnomes playing ball, a reference to the surname of the original owner, Van Ballegooijen ('of ball throwing').
South of here, at Amsteldijk 67, is the neo Renaissance Gemeentearchief (Municipal Archives; Ir 572 02 02), housed in the former town hall of Nieuwer Amstel, a town annexed by Amsterdam during the late I 9th century expansion. Anyone interested in their family history or the history of the city can peruse the archives free of charge, and occasionally there are surprisingly interesting exhibitions. It's open Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm (closed Saturday in July and August).
South of Ceintuurbaan, the Pijp contains some of the most interesting examples of early 20th century housing estates built in the Amsterdam School style. The imposing Cooperatiehof, surrounded by Burgerneester Tellegenstraat, was designed for the socialist housing corporation De Dageraad (The Dawn) by one of the main Amsterdam School architects, Piet Kramer.
Another leading architect, Michel de Klerk, designed
the idiosyncratic housing estates at Henriette Ronnerplein and Therese Schwartzeplein. As with other architecture of this school ' the eccentric details are worth noting: vertically laid bricks, letterboxes as works of art, asymmetric windows, oddly shaped doorways, funny chimneys, creative solutions for corners and so forth.
