Wood Street Urban Farm

Amsterdam Cycle Route 6

A western cross-section of the city

Printable non-tourist cycle routes: this one is a cross-section through western Amsterdam, in roughly chronological order from 17th-century to 20th-century areas. Approximately 3 hours. Revised August 2011.

Read the introduction:Amsterdam

Take a map! The CITO map of Amsterdam isrecommended - the full city map, not the small city-centre version. There are two specialised map shops in Amsterdam:Pied Terre(Overtoom 135-137), and A la Carte (Utrechtsestraat 110/112).

start at the mega cycle-rack on the western side of Centraal Station. It is built in the water, in front of the Ibis hotel, beside the 12-storey tower with metallic facade.The station was built on an artificial island in the 1880's, between the old city and the harbour.

3-storey cycle rack at Amsterdam Centraal Station, CC image by Deadly Tedly

cross the tube-arch cycle bridge, beside the 12-storey tower. On the other side, turn right, through the underpass. Note the old lock gates in the Singel canal: they once opened into tidal water.

at road level, turn right over the bridge. The Singel was the city moat: you are already leaving the area of the small mediaeval city. Continue into the Haarlemmer straat, the mediaeval road to Haarlem.

pass left at nr. 75 the West-Indisch Huis, former headquarters of the Dutch West India Company. The Company was probably the largest single slave trader in history, although Holland was not the largest slave-trading state.

go on to the Korte Prinsengracht canal, cross the bridge, and turn right, passing Korte Prinsengracht nr 20.

go straight on, across the cycle bridge under the railway viaduct. It brings you to the quayside of a former dock basin: the new apartment blocks (opposite) are built on a former railway yard.

continue along this quayside, past 1980's housing. Go on over a boardwalk, at the brown-brick apartments. Go up the steps at the end, and turn left.

go on through the short Kleine Bickers straat, andacross the bridge over Bickers gracht. The structure of the 17th-century dock basins is preserved here.

turn left at the first corner, at the new apartments. This street is a rectangle around an artificial warehouse island, Prinsen eiland. Here there was relatively early (1980's) gentrification of 17th and 18th century warehouses.

Prinseneiland, CC image by Bicyclemark

around the next corner, pass a group with triangular top gables, numbered 269-321 (Witte Pelikaan).

at the next corner, pass the houses 24a and 24b. They were purpose built as artists studios, for the painter George Hendrik Breitner in 1898. His photographs, along with those of Jacob Olie, are the best visual record of late 19th-century Amsterdam. The Municipal Archive has an online collection of both photographers: click on the arrows to view them.

pass a line of heritage warehouses, nrs. 77-85, then a single warehouse with recently cleaned brick, nr 75 (Mercurius), then a group of five warehouses at nr 65-73 (Mars, Broek in Waterland, Goudenkop, Korenbeurs, Schelvisch).

cycle round the next corner. At nr. 41, turn left - over the narrow wooden lifting bridge, over Realengracht. Cycle on into the Vierwindendwars straat ("transverse street of the four winds").

at the end of the short street, turn right. At Taandwars straat turn left, then right along the quayside of the Zoutkeets gracht, towards another wooden lifting bridge.

turn back, past the 1950's silo, and this time turn right, along van Diemen straat.

cross an inland shipping canal, and gostraight on, along the Tasman straat.(You will pass this canal several times). The derelict area on the right is the old timber dock, Houthaven, being redeveloped for upmarket housing.

at the next traffic lights, go on past the Albert Heijn supermarket, and then turn left, into Hembrug straat. This area was built around the time of the First World War.

cross the Oostzaan straat, on the left is the most famous of all the 1920's social housing projects: the 1917/1921 block with Post Office designed for housing association Eigen Haard by Michel de Klerk.

stop at the most-photographed feature, the tiled steeple on the left. (Street view). At this point, turn right into the arched entrance of another Amsterdam School project, Zaanhof. It is an enclosed garden, influenced by the English Garden City movement.

go along the right-hand side and exit by another arch, beside nr 114-116. The keystone here gives the date, 1919: the text praises the generosity of the city authorities.

go up the steps, and turn left along the access road - no need to cross the main road here. Pass the Amsterdam Art Hotel. At the corner with the hotel entrance, go straight on, toward the radio mast visible ahead.

200 m after the hotel, go under the rail line in an underpass. (If you do not pass under this tunnel, then you went wrong at the hotel).

immediately after the underpass tunnel, turn left onto the cycle path at the sign 'Weth. de Roos Schoolwerktuin'.

the path rises slightly, after 100 m turn right, sign for Begraafplaats St. Barbara. This graveyard is heavily planted with trees: the ground is raised to keep graves clear of the groundwater.

100 m after the graveyard entrance, stop at some fields, with an old farm building. This survived as an agricultural remnant until the 1990's, although only 3 km from the city centre.

from this point turn back, back past the graveyard, toward the railway maintenance depot. At the fence of the depot, turn right along the cycle path, Overbraker pad.

pass under the rail line, through the cycle underpass tunnel: you are now in the recently extended Westerpark. Pass (left) more grazing land, abandoned to revert to a pseudo-natural state.

the path rises: just before the cycle bridge, turn left (sign for Tennis). This cycle path is raised, because it is the old embankment of the rail line to Haarlem.

the path rises level with the rail line: here the tiled steeple is just visible left. Cycle downhill, and then straight on, through the older section of park.

as you leave the park, at the sculpture, turn right. Cross the main road at the traffic lights, toward the faded-pink 8-storey block.

go into the street beside this block, De Witten straat. This quarter is the Staatsliedenbuurt, with late 19th-century housing and schools, and much urban-renewal infill from the 1970's on.

cross tram line 10, go straight on. At the end of De Witten straat, turn left, then right along the quayside: this is the inland shipping canal again (Kostverloren vaart).

cross the wooden footbridge, and turn left along the van der Palm kade. Go past the primary school (on the ground floor of the block), and up the steps.

turn right, then first left, into Donker Curtius straat. It takes you back to the quayside of the Kostverloren vaart. Construction has started on the last remaining quayside sites. (Street view).

pass a restored windmill, De Otter - a sawmill on a relict industrial location, with old wooden sheds. Even 300 years ago, activities not wanted inside the city walls relocated to this area. The 1854 map specifically indicates 'sawmills' along this stretch of canal.

continue over a cycle bridge over a side canal. Cross the road at the end of the cycle bridge, and turn left, crossing the Kostverloren vaart.

10 m after the bridge, turn right, onto the cycle path. At the end of the short path, turn right, between the new apartment blocks. (Street view).

at the end of this street, at the residential home De Werf, turn right onto the cycle path. It bends left to the waterside of theKostverloren vaart.

cross the arched steel footbridge / cycle-bridge. Go straight on, along Bilderdijk kade. (Street view).

at the tram line, (onDe Clercq straat)turn right and immediately left. You are now on the other bank of this canal. The other side is also called Bilderdijk kade.

De Clercq straat isa typical 19th-century radial road. In fact, this area is generally typical of late-19th-century expansion. The houses along the canal itself were (and are) more upmarket than those in the side streets.

turn second right into Kwakers straat: the area on the corner is being redeveloped. AtBellamy plein, go left of the small public garden.

pass (left) an old tram depot, also awaiting redevelopment:go on into Bellamy straat.

continue along Bellamy straat, past smaller 19th-century houses, unusual for Amsterdam, even some two-storey houses with gardens. (Street view). These are rural housing relicts: this was once a horticultural area outside the city walls.

at the end of the street, turn left. You are again on the quayside of the shipping canal (Kostverloren vaart).

cross the Kinker straat, with tram lines 7 and 17, continue along the canalside. The housing on the opposite side is mainly interwar, first a school building of the 1920's, backing onto the water.

continue along the canal bank, turning onto a side canal.

turn right across the first bridge here, into Pieter Langendijk straat, then turn second left into the Wilhelmina straat. This area is typical late 19th-century housing of reasonable quality.

at the Jan Pieter Heije straat turn right. This is a typical local shopping street in 19th-century quarters. The side streets are generally similar to the Wilhelmina straat.

the Jan Pieter Heije straat ends at the Overtoom (route of tram line 1). Cross the road, to the two-way cycle path on the other side, and turn right.

go on 50 m to nr. 325, and turn into the short Katten laan. Go past the tennis courts, into the 19th-century Vondelpark. Inside the park gate, you are on a long tree-lined avenue: turn right along it.

go on through the park. Further on, the avenue curves. Exit the park by the large triple park gates (you first see them on your right).

cross the Amstelveense weg (with tram line), and go on along the cycle path, opposite the triple gates.

via the cycle bridge, cross the Kostverlorenvaart, again. This canal is one of the oldest major landscape elements in the city, along with the Amstel river, the dam, and the sea dike.

go straight on into the Theophile de Bock straat, past a small square with 3-storey houses, Jacob Maris plein.

cross the Haarlemmermeer straat at the traffic lights. The housing here, 4 or 5 storey enclosed blocks, is typical interwar private housing.

before the new school, turn right, follow the cycle sign for Osdorp. Stop on the bridge, and look back at the older housing.

immediately after the bridge turn left, onto a cycle path along the lake:again following the sign for Osdorp. Pass new apartments, built on the site of a former hospital.

after the new apartments, turn right, over the cycle bridge with the brown wooden railings. Then turn left, under the viaducts of the ring motorway.

go straight on, across the roundabout, into the Schipluiden laan. Then look back to the left, at the 1960's blocks, originally a suburban relocation of the clothing industry. The building has been renovated since, and renamed World Fashion Center. The mono-sectoral function has evolved into a cluster of office employment.

Lelylaan Station, on the line to Schiphol Airport and Leiden. CC image by Comicbase

250 m on, before Lelylaan Station, turn left at the cycle sign (direction Amstelveen / Den Haag). Pass 5 infill apartment blocks, on the right.

at the last block (193-240), go straight on, down the ramp to the waterside, and then toward the metro station entrance (Heemstede straat, on the ring metro line).

at the metro entrance, turn left across the bridge, and then right along the cycle path. You are now on Plesman laan, which carries tram line 2. (Plesman founded KLM, making him a minor national hero).

after the metro station, the urban design is from the 1950's and 1960's. This is Slotervaart, named after the canal beside the road.

pass left a medical complex, including a hospital, the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and the national blood transfusion laboratory.

after the medical complex, you leave the the built-up area, as it was in 1985. The next houses on the left are untypical, because this was an agricultural area (greenhouses). Behind these houses new housing is visible, a 1990's urban extension of Amsterdam, Nieuw Sloten.

pass left Ottenhof (garden plants, a relict of the former land use). At the next roundabout, turn left into the housing development, under the 9-storey apartment block - follow the signs for Oeverlanden.

follow the cycle path through a wedge of open space. Although there are apartment blocks here, most housing in Nieuw Sloten consists of two-storey row houses. They are typical of recent urban-edge housing, the VINEX locations.

the cycle path continues towards the Slotertoren, the highest block in Nieuw Sloten, and crosses tram line 2.

continue past the shops. Go straight on, cross at the traffic lights, and continue along the cycle path in the direction Oeverlanden.

go to the right at the next roundabout, follow the cycle sign for Sloten, onto the Sloter weg. (The 8 m brick sculpture here, is apparently intended as a windmill, not a rabbit).

continue along the village street, with its two-storey rural houses. At nr 1253, turn right toward the older church, across Dorpsplein, the old village square.

the circular graveyard around the church is still visibly raised: go around it anti-clockwise, to the right.

when you reach the church door, turn right into the Nieuwe Aker weg, then left into the Akerpolder straat. The first building here still has the sign above the door indicating its original function: Wees- en Armenhuis (Orphanage and Poor-house).

back at the village street, turn right to continue: here too some farm buildings survive. 200 m on, the old settlement ends: pass a car-wash on the right. However, ahead there is still a windmill.

cycle on and cross the main road to the windmill, a water pumping mill from 1847. It is the only one in the region open daily, heavily restored, and it is primarily a tourist attraction. The sign attempts to associate it with Rembrandt. He was the son of a miller, and he sketched in the area, but he certainly never saw this windmill, built long after his death.

to return, follow the main road here, back toward Centrum. It brings you back to Plesman laan, and the metro station you passed earlier (Heemstede straat). From there, simply follow tram line 2 back to the centre: along Heemstede straat, around the square at Hoofddorp plein, on through Hoofddorp weg, Zeil straat, Koninginne weg, Willemspark weg, and Paulus Potter straat, to the Rijksmuseum - the end point of this route.