Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [75]
The Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark | The Vondelpark |
The Nederlands Filmmuseum and the Vondelkerk
Housed in a grand nineteenth-century building at the northeast corner of the Vondelpark, the Nederlands Filmmuseum (020/589 1400, www.filmmuseum.nl) is really more an art-house cinema than a museum – a showcase for films of all kinds, most of which are shown in their original language, with subtitles in Dutch or sometimes English. There are several screenings nightly, as well as regular matinees, and the programme often follows a prescribed theme. Look out also for the free screenings of classic movies in the summer.
The Filmmuseum also possesses a large archive of old films and is a dab hand at celluloid restoration. In the large building next door, at Vondelstraat 69, the museum’s film library (Mon, Tues & Thurs 1–5pm) has a well-catalogued collection of books, magazines and journals (some in English), though they are for reference only and not loaned out.
The Nederlands Filmmuseum
Across the street is the lugubrious, brown-brick hull and whopping spire of the Vondelkerk, which has had more than its share of bad luck. Work on the church, which was designed by Cuypers(see "The Rijksmuseum"), began in 1872, but finances ran out the following year and the building was not completed until the 1880s. Twenty years later, it was struck by lightning and in the ensuing fire its tower was burnt to a cinder – the present one was added much later. The church always struggled to find a decent-sized congregation, but limped on until it was finally deconsecrated in 1979, and turned into offices thereafter.
The outer districts
Amsterdam is a comparatively small city, and the majority of its residential outer districts are easily reached from the city centre by public transport or, at a pinch, by bike. The south holds most interest, including the Oud Zuid (Old South), at the heart of which is the lively, cosmopolitan De Pijp quarter, home to the Heineken Experience, sited in the company’s old brewery. Also in the Oud Zuid is the striking architecture of the De Dageraad housing project and there are yet more handsome buildings in the adjoining Nieuw Zuid (New South), which itself is near the enjoyable woodland of the Amsterdamse Bos. As for the other districts, you’ll find a good deal less reason to make the trek, though multicultural influences in the east give this part of the city some diversity, and this is also the location of the excellent Tropenmuseum, and further south, the Amsterdam ArenA, home of Ajax football club. Finally, the north of the city, on the other side of the IJ, reachable by way of a short (free) ferry ride from behind Centraal Station, is again almost entirely residential, but it’s pleasant enough if you’re cycling through on the way to open country.
The outer districts |
The Oud Zuid
Amsterdam’s city centre is ringed by the Singelgracht, just beyond which lies the Oud Zuid and its most authentic district, De Pijp (“The Pipe”), Amsterdam’s first real suburb. New development beyond the Singelgracht began around 1870, but after laying down the street plans of De Pijp, the city council left the actual house-building to private developers, who constructed the long rows of largely featureless five- and six-storey buildings that still dominate the area today. It is these sombre canyons of brick tenements that gave the district its name as the apartments were said to resemble pipe-drawers: each had a tiny street frontage but extended deep into the building. De Pijp remains a largely working-class neighbourhood and, despite some gentrification, it is still one of the city’s more closely-knit communities, and a cosmopolitan one to boot, with many new immigrants – Surinamese, Moroccan, Turkish and Asian – finding a home here. Nevertheless, specific attractions in De