Heineken Brewery

Look up at the gold letters on the big brick wall: HEINEKEN BROUWERIJ. The space between the two words is too wide. The wall first read Heineken’s Brouwerij, Heineken’s brewery. The S was taken down in the 1960s, and the other letters stayed where they were.

The brewery is older than this wall. In 1864 Gerard Heineken, who was 22, bought a centuries-old brewery in the middle of the city called De Hooiberg, the Haystack. It could not keep up with the times. So in 1867 he had a new one built here, driven by steam, just outside the Singelgracht, the canal that runs along this street. That was then the edge of Amsterdam.

Nothing of his building is left. The brewery grew year after year until it filled the whole block, and in the 1930s the first part was pulled down to make room. The oldest piece still standing is the brewhouse in the middle of the row, built between 1911 and 1913. A band of tiles across its front still gives the company’s old name: Heineken’s Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij.

The block on the corner, with the gold letters and the clock, was built in the 1930s. Its architect, Bert Ouëndag, died before it was finished, and his son Willem completed it. It has almost no windows, and that is deliberate. Behind this wall the beer fermented and matured in rooms that had to stay dark and at a steady temperature. The windows are on the roof. Up there the hot brew was left to cool, with the windows open.

Brewing stopped here in 1988. Most of what stood behind the front was demolished, and homes and a square took its place. The front along the canal was kept, and since 2006 it has been a national monument. Inside, the company now receives visitors. Outside, the wall still says brewery, with room for one more letter.

“Outside, the wall still says brewery, with room for one more letter.”