The Nieuwendijk is a major shopping street in central

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. 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 and most populated city 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. ...

, then turns left near Prins Hendrikkade. 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 ...

at Martelaarsgracht, 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 bay, near the Central St ...

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, Netherlands, 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 cent ...

, 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 restricted to use by people on foot or ...

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 stree ...

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, 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, to which the rive ...

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 __NOTOC__ 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 men's clothing store ...

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

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, owner also of Britain's Selfridges and Ireland's Bro ...

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 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 in ...

) 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, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

-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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

-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 ...

, 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 turned monthly magazin ...

'' 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 Netherlands, Dutch cloth merchant, an officer in the schutterij, civic guard, a real estate developer in the Jordaan, schepen, alderman in the vroedschap, city council and a ...

(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. ...

(1537 – 1637), merchant * Cornelis Hooft (1547 – 1627), mayor and merchant * Walewijn van der Veen (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 cla ...

" at Nieuwendijk 17 selling

magic mushrooms Psilocybin mushrooms, or psilocybin-containing mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms or as shrooms, are a type of hallucinogenic mushroom and a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain the prodrug psilocybin, which turns into t ...

File:Nieuwendijk, Amsterdam ~1900-1914.jpg, Photograph of the Nieuwendijk dating to 1900-1914 File:Nieuwendijk panoramic.jpg, Panoramic of Nieuwendijk as viewed from its intersection with Mandenmakerssteeg

References

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