Kledingzaak, Nieuwestad 71

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

SHOP HOUSE, substantially renovated in 1885 in a pure Dutch Neo-Renaissance style which has even retained its remarkable original shopfront. By stylistic comparison the design can be attributed to W.C. de Groot or H.H. Kramer.

De Nieuwestad, formerly a canal lined with residential and commercial buildings, changed rapidly in the second half of the nineteenth century into the city's most important shopping area. In most cases, existing buildings had their ground floors converted into shop spaces; facades were opened up with shop windows. The beginning of a continuous metamorphosis. Relatively speaking, in the period 1850 to 1940 there were only few buildings in the shopping area that were substantially or entirely renovated for the shop function, usually with a dwelling above. Rare are the renovated shop houses that have survived thereafter unscathed. Interiors from that period are scarcely preserved. Nieuwestad 71 on the corner of the Nieuwesteeg was largely built new in 1885 as a shop house, still has an intact exterior, but has been internally altered on several occasions.

The client for the renovation of the building was Tjalling Petrus Plantenga, born in Leeuwarden in 1851 and a cloth merchant. The Plantinga family had occupied this location for some time and ran a shop that was advertised as 'P & O Plantenga, Gentlemen's clothing made to measure, ready-made, standard underwear, textiles.' Shortly after the renovation, Plantenga married and the family lived with servants above the shop. The shop subsequently had many other users, but none felt the need to alter its external appearance; even the shop windows were preserved.

The architect of the shop house is not known. The abundant and pure Neo-Renaissance style point in the direction of W.C. de Groot or H.H. Kramer, ambitious architects of the time who did not follow the prevailing eclecticism of the established generation of architects and introduced the Neo-Renaissance. W.C. de Groot based himself on Dutch Renaissance; Kramer, with his Belgian educational background, applied it more freely. De Groot comes into consideration for this building. The Dutch Renaissance here was applied mainly as a decorative style, because the shop house received a new structure: not a gabled roof with a stepped gable, but a cornice-topped facade with a truncated hipped roof, on which the visual language of the Renaissance has been applied.

Description EXTERIOR: Deep corner building on rectangular plan of three storeys with a truncated hipped roof, the front facade of brown brick, in many places enriched with elements of artificial stone, the long side facade entirely plastered. Given the irregularly placed windows in forms pointing towards the eighteenth century, it is quite possible that during the renovation the side facade was retained, adjusted and plastered over. The shopfront consists on both sides of one large display window on a low, moulded plinth of ashlar. Over these large glass openings, lintels of iron I-beams with some ornamental tufts have been laid. The beams rest on a stout pilaster on both sides and a round ashlar column on the corner, behind which a trapezium-shaped corner portico is recessed. On either side of the portico, the delicate corner solution is also supported by two slender cast-iron pillars. The diagonally positioned original glass-panel door with hinges and fastening, including a sneck latch. Between the pillars small gates formed with ornamental ironwork spandrels. Further along the side facade stand two more large display windows with portico and door in the middle in a comparable design; the plastered side facade is worked below with grooves and diamond rustication and on the upper storeys with five irregularly placed windows in the rear section the facade is flat. The front facade is three bays wide and constructed of brown brick, but the mullions and parapets are so lavishly decorated with white-painted artificial stone elements that the brickwork no longer dominates. Rustically worked cushion-shaped rustication bands articulate the facade horizontally. The rectangular windows, high sash windows on the first floor and shorter storey windows on the second floor, are relieved by relieving arches with voussoirs and keystones. The keystones are decorated, the central one of the first floor most conspicuously with a Mercury head in full relief with winged helmet and those of the second floor in the form of consoles that appear to support the cornice. In front of the second floor, stout pillars crowned with capitals and resting on decorated consoles (bearing whiskered satyr heads) have been placed against the outer mullions. Below the moulded gutter line the facade is terminated by a composite cornice: artificial stone moulding with a frieze of compartments of brick mosaic between decorated consoles. Against the central frieze compartment is an ornamental scroll cartouche bearing the construction date: 1885. On the front panel of the truncated hipped roof stands a large dormer window, lavishly provided with Neo-Renaissance motifs: pilasters, timber-carved roll-work jambs, cornice with beads, a crowning pediment and a wrought-iron finial with weathervane and star. The front panel is covered with roofing felt, where twenty years ago large zinc sheets still lay; the eastern side panel is entirely covered with blue-glazed Lucas IJsbrand tiles, the western panel with the covered version.

The double rear wing falls outside protection due to its limited monumental value.

INTERIOR: In the shop, currently furnished nostalgically as a dining and drinking establishment, only the ceiling beams are original. The dwelling above is partly in a state of dismantling, but still contains partly the original layout and traces of the fitting. The entrance with staircase is situated in the rear wing, a tight staircase with railings fitted with cast-iron balusters. On the second floor the dwelling consists of a front drawing room across the full width with a ceiling with heavy beams that with smaller cross beams form a coffered ceiling with acanthus mouldings around the compartments. Window surrounds with window seats with curved ends around the mullions. Panel door with corner rosettes and decorative door frame. The panelled rear wall with cupboards has been dismantled. The black marble fireplace has a mantelpiece panelling with decorative pilasters and a cornice in the form of a rosette moulding. Behind the drawing room runs westward across the full depth the corridor to the rear wing. The first rear room has a plastered ceiling with mandorla moulding within which foliage; the second rear room a black marble fireplace with decorative tiles and a plastered ceiling with a flat cinquefoil and a decorative central ornament. The second floor is entirely removed; the roof truss is still original.

VALUATION

Shop house with dwelling of general architectural-historical and urban significance

- due to the intact and pure Neo-Renaissance style, which characterizes it especially externally;

- due to the important traces of the Neo-Renaissance interior style that the front drawing room in particular still possesses;

- due to the prominent location of this decorative building on a corner of one of the city's most important streets, a position that has been given form in the distinctive entrance feature.