Woonhuis, Alexanderstraat 10

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction

Located on the east side of Wilhelminastraat, between Alexanderstraat (north) and Wilsonsplein (south), a RESIDENTIAL BLOCK. The residential block, constructed in an Eclectic-Renaissance style, comprises six dwellings and was built in 1882 according to a design by A. van der Steur jr. The residential block forms part of the formal urban planning scheme of Wilhelminastraat and its immediate surroundings. Wilhelminastraat was laid out in 1881 as the main axis of a western urban expansion that took place on the site of the filled-in former city rampart. This urban expansion is characterized by a regular and tight street pattern, in which the individually designed residential blocks and dwellings form an architectural unity. In particular along Wilhelminastraat and Mauritsstraat, the street frontages constructed from various residential blocks and dwellings are notable for their urban planning unity and architecture. The residential buildings along Wilhelminastraat are interspersed with a church and two schools, which likewise fit into the urban planning layout of the street.

Description

A residential block consisting of six townhouses on a rectangular floor plan. The residential block, constructed in brick on a natural stone plinth, is built up from a central section comprising four dwellings and two corner dwellings.

The corner dwellings are, with the exception of the entrance, mirror images of each other and are constructed with a basement, piano nobile, upper storey and attic storey and are covered by a hipped roof clad with grey Dutch tiles, grey pantiles and shingles. The corner dwellings, which front onto the respective side streets Alexanderstraat or Wilsonsplein, each have a chamfered corner in the front elevation one window bay wide. The front elevation and side elevation are each three window bays wide. The chamfered corner window bay and the easternmost window bay of the side elevations are projecting. The elevations of the corner dwellings are decorated all around with plastered detailing of wood or stone, such as specklayers, mouldings between the storeys and keystones and setting stones above the windows. Along the top of the elevation, just below the wooden profiled cornice, there is a broad plastered frieze decorated with metopes and triglyphs. Below the triglyphs are boys' heads. Furthermore, the elevations are decorated with wrought-iron ornamental wall anchors. The windows of the corner dwellings consist in both the front and side elevations of double-opening wooden basement windows with grille work at basement level and wooden sash windows on the piano nobile and upper storey. The sash windows on the upper storey have a T-pin. In the roof planes there are three roof dormers per dwelling (one per side) consisting of a double-opening wooden window with a simple gabled roof with half-hipped end. The entrance to the corner plot on the right-hand corner plot is in the middle window bay of the side elevation (Wilsonsplein 15) and originally consists of a sunken wooden front door with cast-iron ornamental grille, which is accessed by means of an eight-step natural stone staircase. The entrance to the left corner plot, Alexanderstraat 10, is located at the rear and consists of a wooden-covered stairway leading to an originally wooden door with cast-iron ornamental grille.

The central section of the residential block, which is sixteen window bays wide, consists entirely of four dwellings. This central block is constructed with a ground floor, upper storey, second storey and attic storey and is covered by a hipped roof clad with grey and some red Dutch tiles. The middle six window bays of this central block are projecting and are carried through above the wooden cornice to two spout gables under recessed gabled roofs. Furthermore, the third window bay from the left and the third window bay from the right, where simple entrance sections are located, are also projecting. These window bays are closed above the cornice by a brick roof dormer under a gabled roof. The front elevation is decorated with, among other things, plastered mouldings between the storeys and wrought-iron ornamental wall anchors. At the top, the elevation is closed off by a wooden cornice. Above the windows are plastered keystones and setting stones. The keystones have a diamond head. In the non-projecting sections of this central section, the windows on the second storey are closed by a lion's head as keystone. The projecting central section is, on the first and second storeys, accentuated by double brick pilasters in the middle and single brick pilasters on either side of it. The pilasters on the first storey have a Doric capital and the pilasters on the second storey have an Ionic capital. On the ground floor, specklayers are incorporated in this central projection. The two front doors in this section are framed by a pilaster arrangement and closed by a semicircular pediment. At the top of the elevation, the projecting central section has a frieze with two tile panels. On the yellow and brown tile panels festoons are depicted and the cartouches read: "ANNO" and "1883". The windows of the central section of the building block are, with the exception of the windows on the ground floor and the attic storey, originally all wooden sash windows with a T-pin on the second storey. The windows on the ground floor are, like the windows in the attic storey, double-opening wooden windows. At the rear elevation of the residential block, the corner houses are built higher through the cornice. Furthermore, the elevation composition of the rear elevation is the same as the front elevation, but of more sober execution and decoration. The rear elevation originally had wooden sash windows and wooden garden and kitchen doors.

Valuation

Largely well-preserved residential block with townhouses from 1882 in Eclectic-Renaissance style, of general importance for its architectural-historical value and its urban planning and ensemble value as a characteristic component of the 19th-century formal urban expansion around Wilhelminastraat; the building block is a defining feature in the eastern street frontage of Wilhelminastraat, which appears as an architectural unity. The residential block is also of cultural-historical importance as an element in the history of housing for the well-to-do and is of importance within the oeuvre of architect A. van der Steur jr.