The Nieuwendijk is a major shopping street in central

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. There are some 200 shops along the street. The street, which dates to the early medieval history of Amsterdam, counts 98 buildings with status. The Nieuwendijk runs northeast from

Dam Square Dam Square or the Dam () is a town square in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Its notable buildings and frequent events make it one of the best-known and most important locations in the city and the country. Location and description ...

, then turns left near

Prins Hendrikkade Prins Hendrikkade (Dutch language, Dutch for "Prince Henry's Quay") is a major street in the centre of Amsterdam. It passes Amsterdam Centraal station, Amsterdam Central Station, intersects the Damrak at the mouth of the Amstel river, and forms th ...

. It then heads northwest, crossing the broad street

Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal The Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal () is a street in the centre of Amsterdam. The street runs north-south without intersecting major streets other than the intersection with Raadhuisstraat at its halfway point, right behind the Royal Palace. On the eas ...

Martelaarsgracht Martelaarsgracht (Martyr's Canal) is a street and former canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Location The Martelaarsgracht is an extension of the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal and runs in a northeastern direction to the Prins Hendrikkade and the Sta ...

, until it hits the

Singel The Singel is one of the canals of Amsterdam. The Singel encircled Amsterdam in the Middle Ages, serving as a moat around the city until 1585, when Amsterdam expanded beyond the Singel. The canal runs from the IJ (Amsterdam), IJ bay, near the ...

canal, where it continues westwards as the . The Nieuwendijk is part of a medieval street pattern intersected by a multitude of narrow alleys. Nine alleys run between Nieuwendijk and

Damrak The Damrak is an avenue and partially filled in canal at the centre of Amsterdam, running between Amsterdam Centraal in the north and Dam Square in the south. It is the main street where people arriving at the station enter the centre of Amsterdam ...

, seven run between Nieuwendijk and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, and three further alleys run west and east from Nieuwendijk beyond Martelaarsgracht. The ("short Nieuwendijk"), the westernmost part between Martelaarsgracht and Singel, was

pedestrianised Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

in the 1970s. In 2013, the entire street was pedestrianised.

History

Middle Ages

The Nieuwendijk is one of the oldest streets of Amsterdam. The Nieuwendijk ("new dyke") and

Kalverstraat The Kalverstraat (, ) is a busy shopping street of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The street runs roughly North-South for about 750 meters, from Dam Square to Muntplein square. The Kalverstraat is the most expensive shopping stre ...

originally formed a dyke running through the western side of early medieval Amsterdam. The oldest traces of habitation in Amsterdam, dating to the late 12th century, were located on the Nieuwendijk and Oudekerksplein. Here, small farms were constructed on artificially constructed mounds, so-called .Peter Jan Knegtmans, ''Amsterdam: een geschiedenis''. Uitgeverij Boom, 2011 (Dutch) The first non-agrarian buildings in Amsterdam were built on the Nieuwendijk."Historie"
Paleiskwartier Amsterdam (Dutch) Archeological excavations on the grounds of the former Cinema Royal at Nieuwendijk 154 revealed a house dating to 1225, half a century before the first mention of the town in written records. Archeological excavations also revealed a small castle at the corner of Nieuwendijk and the alley Dirk van Hasseltsteeg, built around 1275. The fortification was torn down again around 1300. This was possibly related to the 1303-1304 occupation of Amsterdam by

Jan van Amstel Jan van Amstel, or Jan de Hollander, (c. 1500 – c. 1542) was a Dutch Northern Renaissance painter. Jan van Amstel was born in Amsterdam. In or before 1528, van Amstel moved to Antwerp; in that year he joined the city's Guild of Saint Luke ...

, following which Count Wiliam III of Holland ordered the town to demolish its defences. Shortly after 1390, a number of buildings at the southern end of Nieuwendijk were cleared to create a square along the dam on the

Amstel The Amstel () is a river in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It flows from the Aarkanaal and Drecht in Nieuwveen northwards, passing Uithoorn, Amstelveen, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, to the IJ in Amsterdam. Annually, the riv ...

river called ("The Place"), and a town hall was built there. This became

Modern history

The Nieuwendijk was a major shopping street as early as the 17th century. Simon Goudsmit in 1870 opened a

haberdashery In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a retailer who sells men's clothing, ...

shop at Nieuwendijk 132, , which grew to become the present-day

De Bijenkorf De Bijenkorf (; literally, "the beehive") is a chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands, with its flagship store on Dam Square in Amsterdam. The chain is owned by Selfridges Group, which also owns Britain's Selfridges and Ireland's B ...

chain of department stores. Another successful retailer who started on the Nieuwendijk was Anton Sinkel, who opened a shop at Nieuwendijk 174-176 in 1821, which grew to a chain of stores around the country. ("Sinkel's shop") has since become a Dutch expression for a shop selling a wide variety of goods. The brothers Ephraim and Levi Gerzon opened their first shop on Nieuwendijk in 1889, followed by a chain of stores around the country. Fashion designer

Fong Leng Carla Maria Fong Leng Tsang (Rotterdam, 13 August 1937) is a Chinese-Dutch fashion designer. Fong Leng started a fashion boutique in 1969 in the Drugstore at the Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam. In 1971 she moved to larger premises at the P.C. Hooftstra ...

opened her first shop on the Nieuwendijk in 1969. Entrepreneur (owner of fashion retailer

MS Mode MS Mode is a Dutch fashion retailer operating over 200 stores in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain, and Luxembourg, founded by Max Abram. The business originates from the Amsterdamse Albert Cuypmarkt but the first real store started off i ...

) also opened his first shop on the Nieuwendijk. In the 1950s the Nieuwendijk became a centre of the youth subculture. The more working-class,

rock 'n' roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

-influenced Nieuwendijk , who were known as , regularly engaged in fistfights with the more educated,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

-influenced

Leidseplein Leidseplein (English: Leiden Square) is a square in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. It lies in the Weteringschans neighborhood ( Centrum borough), immediately northeast of the Singelgracht. It is located on the crossroads of the Weteringschans, Ma ...

, known as . The term was popularised by a 1955 article in ''

Vrij Nederland ''Vrij Nederland'' (Free Netherlands) is a Dutch magazine, established during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II as an underground newspaper. It has since grown into a magazine. The originally weekly and now monthly magaz ...

'' magazine, "De nozems van de Nieuwendijk" ("The nozems of the Nieuwendijk"). Enne Koops
"Nozems – uitdagende jeugdcultuur uit de jaren 1950 en 1960"
Historiek (Dutch)

Residents

Jacob Adriaensz Backer Jacob Adriaensz Backer (1608 – 27 August 1651) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He produced about 140 paintings in twenty years, including portraits, religious subjects, and mythological paintings. In his style, he was influenced by Wybrand d ...

(1609 – 1651), painter * (1833 – 1890), photographer * Jacob J. Hinlopen (1582 – 1629), merchant *

Jan Jacobszoon Hinlopen Jan Jacobszoon Hinlopen (10 May 1626 – 4 September 1666) was a rich Dutch cloth merchant, an officer in the civic guard, a real estate developer in the Jordaan, alderman in the city council and a keen art collector. He would have been electe ...

(1626 – 1666), merchant *

Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen (also Tymen; Thymen; Hinloopen; 1572–1637), was one of the leaders of the Dutch merchant and whaling company of Noordsche Compagnie beginning in 1617 and participant in the New Netherland Company, interested in furs. Thi ...

(1537 – 1637), merchant * Cornelis Hooft (1547 – 1627), mayor and merchant *

Walewijn van der Veen Walewyn (Walewijn) van der Veen, was born in 1617 and died sometime after 1679 in New York. He was one of the first lawyers and Notary Publics in New Amsterdam 1662–1664. The Register of New Netherland 1626-1674 by E.B. O Callaghan LL.D, Page 12 ...

(1617-1669), merchant, attorney and New Amsterdam notary

Gallery

File:Nieuwendijk.jpg, Nieuwendijk at the

end File:Amsterdam - Nieuwendijk 113-115.jpg, Nieuwendijk 113, a dating to 1635 File:2009 Smartshop Nieuwendijk 17 Amsterdam.jpg, A "

smartshop A smart shop (or smartshop) is a retail establishment that specializes in the sale of psychoactive substances, usually including psychedelics, as well as related literature and paraphernalia. The name derives from the name " smart drugs", a clas ...

" at Nieuwendijk 17 selling

magic mushrooms Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include ''Psilocybe'', ''Pa ...

File:Nieuwendijk, Amsterdam ~1900-1914.jpg, Photograph of the Nieuwendijk dating to 1900-1914

References

{{reflist Streets in Amsterdam Shopping districts and streets in the Netherlands Pedestrian streets in the Netherlands