Levensmiddelenfabriek, Westzijde 168

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

Foodstuffs factory situated between Westzijde and Zaan, forming part of the "Verkade" factory complex and constructed in phases between 1885 and 1937, with post-war extension (1968) of the chocolate factory built in 1936.

The oldest part of the factory, the former steam bread and biscuit factory "De Ruyter" (1886), has a front facade in the neo-Renaissance style, the remaining facades are designed in transitional architecture. The chocolate factory (1936) is executed in the functional style.

Description

Foodstuffs factory whose facade wall along Westzijde is formed by a sequence of factory buildings realized between 1885 and 1969. This elongated brick facade wall has staggered heights. Projections mark the curved course of the street.

Approximately halfway along stands the approximately 17-metre-wide facade of the originally freestanding bread and biscuit factory De Ruyter (1886). This component has two storeys and an attic storey beneath a shallow-pitched zinc hipped roof. The symmetrical cornice-topped facade has six window bays and a central risalit with Flemish gable. On either side of the central risalit is a double door with fanlight, beside it a narrow six-paned sash window, and in the risalit two nine-paned sash windows; on the storey on either side a coupled window pair (two six-paned windows) and in the central risalit two nine-paned windows. All facade openings have arched relieving arches, with the exception of the straight-topped window in the Flemish gable. The brickwork (in alternating bond, neatly jointed) is enlivened by a drip moulding on the storey, bands at the height of the lintels, stucco with cartouche decoration in the arch fields (above the doors the inscriptions 'BAKKERIJ' and 'DE RUYTER'), diamond-pointed abutment and arch stones, keystone stones decorated with heads, and multicoloured tile mosaic beneath the ground-floor windows; furthermore stone plint and drip lintels, wrought-iron ornamental wall anchors. The facade has a plastered frieze and a cornice (backing gutter; at the risalit resting on consoles decorated with heads), broken by the Flemish gable, which is set between volute-shaped shoulder pieces and is crowned with a pediment and wrought-iron ornamental piece. On the Zaan side a (modified) warehouse facade, at the height of the recess beside the water tower, recalls the original rear facade. Internally the "De Ruyter" factory has an iron skeleton with square and round cast-iron columns placed on stone feet supporting H-section beams.

The facade of the dispatch and office building (1895) steps forward to the right (S) of "De Ruyter". This originally two-storey building with attic storey was raised by two storeys in 1912, which is evident from the colour difference in the brickwork. On the ground floor this building has large nine-paned sash windows and on the storeys smaller (sash) windows, mostly with four- or two-paned fanlight. The relieving arches are of bright-red brick. These arches, with multicoloured tile mosaic in the arch field, have a stone drip moulding with likewise abutment and keystone stones. Stone is also used for the plint (with breast-wall in grey brick), for corner blocks, chamfer stones, weathering and drip lintels. Stone also accentuates the entrance bay. A stone band frame surrounds the double loading door with semicircular fanlight and round-arched side windows. On either side of the decorated keystone above this entrance is the year of construction carved. Above this entrance is located on the storey a (modified) loading door with side and fanlight windows (serving hatch) under stone lintels. The accent on this bay is continued in the 1912 construction with a white plastered field (containing date stone), chamfered with bright-red stone, and a likewise arch field beneath a bright-red relieving arch. The windows on the storey received iron lintels in 1912. The facade has a backing gutter on corbels.

To the right (S) next to the aforementioned building stands a projecting building (1912) with a chamfered left corner, which above the gutter develops into an octagonal tower beneath a likewise zinc tent roof. The building has five storeys beneath a flat roof. At the front the fifth storey is enclosed beneath a red tile-covered roof slope with roof dormer. The right-side facade - which adjoins a later extension - has a stepped termination. The building has iron multi-paned windows beneath iron lintels. The detailing corresponds to the foregoing: bright-red brick at the relieving arches, the frame of white plastered fields between the windows of first and second storeys, and the drip lintels there; stone at corner blocks, abutment stones, the weathering above the ground-floor window, and drip lintels at the ground-floor windows.

To the right (S) the chocolate factory (1936) adjoins. This forms a rectangular building block with concrete skeleton in functional brick architecture, consisting of four storeys beneath a flat roof with overhang. The chocolate factory has four coupled window bays on the Zaan side, six on the Westzijde and ten on the south side, all provided with multi-paned steel windows.

To the left (N) of building "De Ruyter" stands a two-part building from 1903 originally intended as a bakery and dispatch building. The bakery part has a shallow-pitched spout gable, while the facade of the dispatch building to the left adjoining it is straight-topped. The bakery is an elongated building that extends to the Zaan (see below under Zaan side). It has two storeys and an attic storey beneath a red tile-covered, shallow-pitched gabled roof with the ridge perpendicular to the street. The front facade has four window bays, is articulated by pilasters and ends in a spout gable with reinforced corners and stone drip mouldings and pieces. Both storeys have slightly arched four-paned sash windows with stone drip lintels. The four ground-floor windows are paired beneath two segmental arches in bright-red brick with stone drip moulding and keystone with Verkade monogram. Between both arches is located a natural stone commemorative plaque with equestrian representation, the inscription 'De Ruyter', a pretzel coat-of-arms, and date stone '3 MEI 1886-1906'. The attic storey has a central double loading door, incorporated in a rising series of narrow, small windows. The brickwork is enlivened by the application of grey brick (plint and base of the corner pilasters), bright-red brick (segmental arches and band beneath the attic windows) and yellow brick (small panes at the height of the attic floor).

Of the dispatch building constructed in 1903 to the left (N) of the building with spout gable, part of the front facade remains. Originally this building had three storeys beneath a flat roof. In 1931 it was reduced by one storey and the facade was incorporated into that of the new - located behind and to the left adjoining - two-storey biscuit factory beneath a shed roof. The old and new facade gained unity because the roof line was formed in the same manner in a border of projecting decorative brickwork with block dentils and rolls and because the 1931 facade contains elements of the 1903 facade (including window form, stone detailing and in bright-red and grey brick as aforementioned; partly perhaps reused material from the old side facade). Thus the following image was obtained: a raised central part (articulated by pilasters and accentuated by higher-rising and projecting block-shaped corner terminations), with ground floor two wide (folding) doors, and on the storey a quartet of segmental-arched windows; to the right of this central part the equally wide facade from 1903 with a double door with segmental-arched fanlight and two segmental-arched four-paned windows as aforementioned, and on the storey two segmental-arched windows with straight-topped side windows; to the left of the central part a narrow corner part, containing a single door and a four-paned segmental-arched window and on the storey a modified window (originally an identical window to that in the facade part from 1903) through which later a cable bridge to the factory complex on the opposite side of Westzijde was run. The detailing of the facade is as aforementioned (bright-red segmental arches and edges of the door, dark-grey plint, stone drip lintels, chamfer stones, abutment and keystone stones). Above the wide dispatch doors is a large tile tableau consisting of a green-framed yellow field on which in green is the inscription 'VERKADE'. The side and rear facades of the biscuit factory are sober in execution.

On the Zaan side stand from north to south: the aforementioned bakery from 1903 beneath shallow-pitched gabled roof, the setback rear facade of the aforementioned building "De Ruyter" (1885), the aforementioned water tower against the north-eastern corner of the factory building placed beneath shallow-pitched gabled roof (1904), a three-storey factory building from 1911, and the chocolate factory built in 1936 and enlarged in 1968 which was described earlier. The bakery has two storeys beneath a shallow-pitched gabled roof with the ridge perpendicular to the Zaan, with on the side facades and rear facade an overhang, whereby on the Zaan facade beneath the wind braces a small wooden roof piece is attached. This facade is symmetrically arranged and is articulated by pilasters. On the ground floor is an internal gallery, open to the Zaan with a four-part arcade and on the side facades with a single arch. The storey has a series of six-paned windows (partly bricked up). At the height of the attic storey in the middle is the bricked-up opening of a vanished wind house, flanked on either side by a rising series of narrow windows between pendant pilasters.

To the left of the bakery is a recess in the Zaan front; in the rear facade (c. 1904) there is incorporated the (modified) warehouse facade of building "De Ruyter" from 1896.

To the left of the recess stands the aforementioned factory building from 1904. It is a two-storey building with attic storey beneath a shallow-pitched, red tile-covered gabled roof, with ridge lantern and the ridge perpendicular to the Zaan. Here too an overhang, with a small wooden roof piece attached beneath the wind braces. The facade is articulated by pilasters and is symmetrically arranged with - in the first and second storeys - a series of rectangular windows beneath iron lintels, and with - at the height of the roof storey - in the middle a round-arched triplet, with on either side a rising series of narrow, vertical light-slits in spared fields between pendant pilasters of a rising roof frieze.

Against the north-eastern corner of this building - beside the recess - stands the rectangular water tower of five storeys beneath a steep, red cross-tile-covered hipped roof of which the short ridge is perpendicular to the Zaan and is crowned with a wrought-iron ornamental fence with weather-vane in the form of a rider. Each of the four roof slopes has a small roof dormer beneath a pitched roof with red slate and tile. The flat wall surface of the tower is articulated by corner pilasters which at the base find their abutment in heavy, rusticated natural stone blocks and which at the height of the projecting attic storey develop into round arch-like corner crownings. The front face has loading doors. On the ground floor a loading door with downward-curved stone drip lintels (originally the buildings stood directly on the Zaan), on the third storey a door which together with side windows and the fanlights of the storey below is framed in a large round arch, and on the fourth storey a loading door with semicircular fanlight. Above this an oculus above which originally the hoist beam protruded. The fifth storey has in each facade face - as aforementioned - a series of narrow, vertical light-slits between pendant pilasters. On the projecting brickwork of the attic storey stands respectively on the south, east, and north side in large letters: 'BESCHUIT/VERKADE/KOEKFABRIEK'. The tower contains a water reservoir for the sprinkler installation.

The three-storey building from 1911 has a flat roof and a symmetrically arranged facade with in each storey on either side of a central loading door three windows beneath iron lintels. Like the aforementioned facades on the Zaan side the brickwork is sober in its decoration with contrasting bright-red brick (including round-head drip lintels, edges).

Valuation

Foodstuffs factory "Verkade" situated between Westzijde and Zaan, built in diverse architectural styles in the period 1886-1968, of general importance due to cultural and architectural-historical value as the historically-functional main component of the factory complex of the same name and as one of the most complete and best-preserved examples in terms of both overall form and detailing of a phased factory complex for foodstuffs in the Netherlands. The factory - with silhouette-determining water tower - has situational value through its location as a historical industrial ensemble on the Zaan.