Stadsschouwburg

Amsterdam’s city theatre has burned down twice. The one that stood here before this was built of wood, and in February 1890 a firecracker from the square set it alight.

The city has had a theatre of its own since the 1630s, when one opened on the Keizersgracht. It burned in 1772. The city then built a new one out here on the Leidseplein, which in those days was little more than a yard for carts beside the city gate. It was made of wood, and people called it the houten kast, the wooden cupboard.

In 1874 it was given stone outer walls. It made no difference. In February 1890 a smouldering firecracker, from fireworks on the square, set the building alight and it burned out completely. Nobody died, but the archive, the library, the sets and the costumes were lost.

The theatre in front of you went up between 1892 and 1894, in brick and stone. Jan Springer designed it with his father and with Adolf Leonard van Gendt, the architect of the Concertgebouw. At the opening in September 1894 the Concertgebouw’s orchestra played.

It was built to keep people apart. The wealthy came by carriage and stepped out, in the dry, under the big balcony at the front. People with the cheapest tickets went in by doors on the slanted corners and climbed their own stairs to the top balconies. Rich and poor never had to meet.

In 1969 young theatre makers threw tomatoes at the stage here, demanding something new. The protest is still known as the Aktie Tomaat. Since 2018 the theatre and its resident company have been one organisation, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam.