Gevangenis, Pesthuislaan 4

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

Former cell building for military personnel from 1848, part of the former prison complex in and around the former seventeenth-century Pest house (already a national monument; monument numbers 25438 and 25439). The cell building contained twenty punishment cells. The building was designed in sober Eclectic style, which is typical of utilitarian and military buildings from the mid-nineteenth century. N.B. The bars, which were originally fitted to the outside of all windows, have been removed. The entrance in the western end gable, which provided access to the now-removed exercise yard, has been altered.

Description

The former military prison is constructed in red brick on a rectangular plan under a hipped roof with grey muted Dutch tiles and an overhanging wooden gutter moulding. The long sides contain five window bays with each outer bay having a high-placed fanlight and each of the three middle bays containing large arched sash windows with wooden frames in which a small glazing bar division. Stretching above the windows, hard stone drip mouldings below. In the southern long side small high arched windows in the outer window bays. In the end gables are located the wooden entrance doors under large semicircular windows, likewise with small glazing bar division. The entrance with fanlight in the eastern end gable is situated in a flat single-storey extension. Roof ridge cresting on the ridge ends, two high brick chimneys and a flat wooden roof dormer with multi-pane windows central in each roof slope.

Interior

Amongst those elements preserved from the interior are: The layout of the building with a broad corridor on the ground floor and a circulating wooden gallery on iron brackets on the storey above. The wooden staircase is fitted with iron stair rails and an iron balustrade. The iron balustrade of the gallery also has crossed balusters. Off the corridor are situated cells and larger spaces, off the gallery cells and even two isolation cells with ironwork screening within the cell. The larger spaces on the ground floor are spanned by multiple barrel vaults, the joints of which are lined with wooden cassettes. The cells are covered by a single barrel vault and have plastered floors and walls. Some cells are still furnished with a bolted wooden small table and cupboard. They are closed by wooden (panelled) doors with iron fittings. The isolation cells have double doors. Originally the vaults and walls in the cells were painted in ochre yellow and brown. The furniture was green. The drying loft under the wooden roof which served for drying eating utensils and washing, is fitted with walls consisting of wooden slats.

Valuation

The former cell building from 1848 for military personnel is of general importance due to its architectural and cultural-historical as well as typological value as an internal and external largely intact and characteristic component of a mid-nineteenth-century prison complex.