Bloemenmarkt

Before 1862 the market stood on another canal, the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. The oldest mention of it there is from 1620. Trees arrived by water from the nurseries of Boskoop. In 1862, when there was talk of filling that canal in, the market moved here, to the Singel. The old canal was filled in later, and trams now run where its water was.

In those days it was called the tree and plant market, and it sold hardly any cut flowers until the 1960s. Growers sold from boats moored in the canal, and fresh stock came in every day by water from nurseries outside the city. This water suited them. It was once the moat outside the medieval city wall.

Now look at what the stalls stand on. Toward the end of the twentieth century the boats were replaced by concrete hulls, with structures on top that look like greenhouses. Seen from the water, they make one closed front. The boats are gone, but the market is still on the water.

“The boats are gone, but the market is still on the water.”

Over the years the stalls turned towards visitors. Today they sell mostly bulbs and souvenirs. In 2019 the last florist left. Timmer’s had been here since 1943, and tourists, the local news reported, bought bulbs but not bouquets. Amsterdammers now buy their plants at the markets on the Amstelveld and the Noordermarkt.

The city has wanted to win them back. It planned to turn this into a place where people who live here would come for flowers again, and in February 2026 it dropped the plan: there was not enough money to buy out all the stalls. So the flower market is what you see, a row of greenhouses on an old moat, selling tulips that have not grown yet.