Rooms with a view

Amsterdam's historic canal houses offer vertical living at its very finest

- Deborah Nicholls-Lee

STROLLING around Amsterdam’s magnificent canal district, it’s hard to imagine the modest fishing village that once stood here on peaty land drained from swamps. Today, the Dutch capital’s concentric canals and the impressive 17th-century properties that line them are UNESCO-listed, with the names of the three principal canals, the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht (gentlemen, emper- ors and princes), reflecting the aspirations of their earliest occupants, when the trade routes established by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) made Amsterdam the richest port in the world.

Despite this influx of wealth, the merchants seeking residences in this burgeoning city were shrewd when it came to space. The classic Amsterdam canal house was tall and thin, with properties typically reaching four or five storeys high, as it was the footprint, not the living space, that determined the tax rate. Even the characteristically large windows were as practical as they were palatial, playing an important role in reducing the weight that was borne by the properties’ stilted wooden foundations.

This vertical living commanded excellent views, but necessitated a narrow stairway. As a result, large objects were—and still are —delivered to the house on a rope via a hook built into the gable, hoisting to the store rooms merchandise shipped from the colonies or, to the main residence, luxurious furnishings acquired with the profits.