Paleis voor Volksvlijt
History of De Pijp and Rivierenbuurt, Amsterdam
De Pijp: From Working-Class Housing to Creative Hub
De Pijp emerged in the 1870s, built quickly to house Amsterdam’s growing working class. Its long, narrow streets gave the district its nickname, “De Pijp,” Dutch for “the pipe.” Small, affordable apartments went up alongside new factories and workshops, and workers moved in fast.
The neighbourhood soon earned a livelier reputation too. Amsterdam’s official history archive describes the early De Pijp as a genuinely rough quarter, its narrow streets filled with cafés, students, and a nightlife the city considered scandalous at the time.
The raw life in De Pijp, Gemeente Amsterdam
Its many art schools, from the Quellinusschool to the Rijksakademie, gave De Pijp a second reputation as Amsterdam’s own Quartier Latin, home to the Tachtigers, the country’s first true avant-garde movement. The Albert Cuyp Market began informally around 1905 and grew into one of the city’s largest street markets, a role it still plays today.
By the early twentieth century, De Pijp had become genuinely diverse, home to Jewish families, Spanish Civil War refugees, and workers from across the Netherlands and beyond. After the Second World War, the district declined, its buildings ageing and its population shrinking. In the 1970s, students and artists rediscovered its cheap rents and empty studios, and slowly brought the neighbourhood back to life. Piet Mondriaan’s own years living beside Sarphatipark, in the last stretch of his time in Amsterdam, are part of that same artistic thread.
Read Mondriaan’s story on our Sarphatipark page
Today’s De Pijp has gentrified fast, with boutiques and restaurants replacing many older working-class businesses, though its bohemian character has never fully disappeared.
Rivierenbuurt: Planned Elegance and a Difficult History
Rivierenbuurt, “Rivers Neighbourhood,” came later than De Pijp, planned in the 1920s as a middle-class district under the urban vision of architect H.P. Berlage. Its streets, named after Dutch rivers, follow wide, tree-lined layouts, and its buildings show the Amsterdam School style throughout: decorative brickwork, ornamental masonry, and rounded corners.
Jewish families settled here in large numbers during the 1930s, building schools, shops, and synagogues into a thriving community. The Nazi occupation shattered it, deporting most of its Jewish residents during the war. Anne Frank’s family lived at Merwedeplein 37, in this same neighbourhood, before going into hiding in 1942, a connection the district still commemorates today.
After the war, new residents moved in, including many arriving from the former Dutch colonies, reshaping the area’s population once again. Rivierenbuurt has stayed quieter and more residential than De Pijp ever since, its architecture and green streets still drawing people who want a calmer corner of the city.
The Lost Palace of Frederiksplein
Just north of De Pijp once stood one of Amsterdam’s most ambitious buildings, and its story runs directly through this district’s own history.
Samuel Sarphati, the same physician and planner behind Sarphatipark, initiated the Paleis voor Volksvlijt after visiting London’s Great Exhibition. Built between 1859 and 1864 on the Frederiksplein, and modelled on London’s Crystal Palace, it hosted concerts, exhibitions, and public events for decades. Sarphati’s wider development plan for this part of the city, financed with support from wealthy Amsterdammers, extended straight into what became De Pijp.
Fire destroyed the Paleis in 1929. Its site stood empty for decades until De Nederlandsche Bank built its current headquarters there in the early 1960s.
The building has never quite been forgotten. Since 2002, artist Wim T. Schippers has campaigned to rebuild it on its original Frederiksplein site, arguing the square lost its grandeur the day the Paleis burned. More recently, city politicians have proposed a different path: a new Paleis voor Volksvlijt built instead in Amsterdam Zuidoost, potentially combined with a new library branch or a museum on the history of slavery. The debate remains unresolved, but the ambition behind it, a shared public building that draws a whole city together, echoes exactly what Sarphati set out to build in the first place.
Nieuwe verklaring voor brand die Paleis voor Volksvlijt verwoestte, NOS
Paleis voor Volksvlijt, Wikipedia
Waar moet een nieuw Paleis voor Volksvlijt komen?, NH Nieuws
Two Neighbourhoods, One Ongoing Story
De Pijp and Rivierenbuurt still shape Amsterdam’s identity today, each in its own way. De Pijp remains a genuinely multicultural hub, while Rivierenbuurt offers some of the city’s finest Amsterdam School architecture, especially along the Vrijheidslaan.
Both districts now face the familiar pressures of tourism and gentrification, yet both remain authentic pieces of a city still telling its own history, one street at a time.
Explore Deeper
Read more about Piet Mondriaan’s years in this neighbourhood on our Sarphatipark page.
Discover Tempel Amsterdam, De Appel, and Cinetol on our Cultural Centers page.
Explore the wider district on our De Pijp & Rivierenbuurt page.
The raw life in De Pijp
Construction of De Pijp began in 1870. The first wave of residents turned it into a rough neighbourhood. Cafés, prostitutes, artists and students dominated the area. In the narrow streets ‘whoredom and immorality were rampant’.
Nieuwe verklaring voor brand die Paleis voor Volksvlijt verwoestte
Jul 29, 2016 – Een brand verwoestte het Paleis voor Volksvlijt aan het Frederiksplein in Amsterdam in 1929. Sindsdien heeft het een bijna mythische reputatie. Het luchtige tentoonstellingsgebouw, met onder meer een theaterzaal, een restaurant en twee winkelgalerijen, werd in 1864 gebouwd naar het voorbeeld van het beroemde Crystal Palace in Londen.