Amsterdam, expansion plan of 1877 – L.J.B. Wiessner, c. 1940

HISTORICAL MAP OF AMSTERDAM IN 1877

“Amsterdam Ao. 1877 met het uitbreidingsplan van Ir. J. Kalff” [Amsterdam A.D. 1877 with the expansion plan by Eng. J. Kalff]. Collotype, made around 1940 by Leendert Johan Bernard Wiessner of the Amsterdam Department of Public Works. Size (border): 61 × 65.5 cm.

In the first half of the 19th century Amsterdam fell further into decline after years of unrest. A stagnant economy and rising unemployment followed as Pampus (the water through which you entered the Amsterdam harbour) silted up, making the port of Amsterdam increasingly difficult to reach. Transshipment onto smaller vessels proved too costly; ship camels were used for a time. This too came to an end when the harbour itself began to silt up.

Around 1815 Amsterdam’s economy hit bottom and the population had fallen to only 140,000. Houses decayed, the streets and canals were strewn with refuse, and several epidemics broke out. Around 1818 King William I ordered the digging of the North Holland Canal (Noordhollandsch Kanaal). Opened in 1824, it made Amsterdam’s isolated harbour more accessible. Ships could unload their cargoes and employment rose, allowing the Industrial Revolution in Amsterdam to begin, slowly. As population and jobs increased, the Noordhollandsch Kanaal soon proved too small to handle the growing volume of maritime traffic.

After 1830 conditions for Amsterdam’s citizens worsened. There were too few dwellings to house the population, forcing people to live in cellars or tiny attic rooms. By about 1850 the city was overcrowded; in the Jordaan neighborhood thousands lived in ramshackle hovels built first in inner courtyards and later even in the alleys. These huts stood so close together that sunshine and fresh air were rare. Amsterdam stank, and excrement and waste were everywhere. Epidemics such as smallpox, tuberculosis, typhus, and cholera broke out.

Nevertheless, industry kept growing. In 1863 construction of the North Sea Canal (Noordzeekanaal) was commissioned; it would be wider and deeper than the Hoordhollandsch Kanaal and benefit industry by allowing larger ships to reach Amsterdam directly. More jobs—and thus more residents—were expected. Given the dire conditions in poorer neighborhoods, room had to be made for new housing. In 1867 the city engineer Jacobus van Niftrik submitted an expansion plan. Covering a vast area, it was rejected in 1868 because its extensive green belts left too little area for housing to generate the funds needed to expropriate local farmers; financially, it was not feasible.

After the North Sea Canal entered service in 1876, larger ships could reach Amsterdam’s harbour, the Industrial Revolution truly gathered pace, and a population boom followed. In 1877 the director of Public Works, Jan Kalff, submitted a new expansion plan. Its area was roughly the same as Van Niftrik’s, but it took expropriation into account by fitting the plan better into existing structures. Housing was set more densely, and the Westerkanaal was incorporated at the expense of the still-young public garden at that location. This made the plan financially attractive enough for the city council to approve.

Kalff’s plan is shown again on this map, made around 1940.

Literature: Marc Hameleers (2003) “Amsterdamse Plattegronden 1866-2000”, no. 147.

Price: 475,-