Scheepvaarthuis: A Palace for the Shipping Lines
Why is it significant?
Walk round to the pointed end of this building and stand where its prow cuts into the street. Then let your eyes climb: brick that ripples like waves, iron railings twisted like seaweed, and everywhere sculpture... sea gods, mermaids, dolphins, anchors, ships, and the stern faces of Dutch…
Key Facts
| Place | Scheepvaarthuis: A Palace for the Shipping Lines |
|---|---|
| Address | Prins Hendrikkade 108, 1011 AK Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.37450, 4.90390 |
| Part of Walk | Spice, Ships and Shadows: Amsterdam's Golden Age Harbour and the Dutch East India Company |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk round to the pointed end of this building and stand where its prow cuts into the street. Then let your eyes climb: brick that ripples like waves, iron railings twisted like seaweed, and everywhere sculpture... sea gods, mermaids, dolphins, anchors, ships, and the stern faces of Dutch navigators.
This is the Scheepvaarthuis, the Shipping House, built between 1913 and 1916 for six Dutch shipping companies that ran lines to the colonies in the East and the West. The architect was Johan van der Mey, helped by two young designers, Michel de Klerk and Piet Kramer, and together they created the first great building of the style now called the Amsterdam School. Inside, even the door handles, lamps and stained glass tell the story of the sea.
The spot was chosen with care. Tradition holds that in 1595 the first Dutch fleet to the East Indies set out from near here: four ships under Cornelis de Houtman, carrying around two hundred and fifty men. The voyage was a disaster of quarrels, disease and violence, and when the ships came back in 1597, fewer than ninety men were still alive. But they had reached Java, and they had proved it could be done.
Amsterdam went into a frenzy. Within a few years a string of rival companies were racing each other to the Spice Islands, driving up prices in Asia and crashing them at home. The government's answer, in 1602, was to force them all into one: the VOC. So this building marks the start of the whole story, and three hundred years later the shipping companies placed their headquarters right on top of it, a monument to empire built at the height of empire.
Look carefully at the facade and you will find maps, compass roses and the names of distant ports woven into the decoration. It is beautiful, and it is also propaganda in brick. Today the building is a hotel. Now turn away from the water, and walk south along the Geldersekade, across the Nieuwmarkt, to the Kloveniersburgwal, where the Company itself had its headquarters.