Woonhuis, Westersingel 50

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

TOWN HOUSE with original ground-floor and upper-floor dwelling built in or shortly after 1905 in Transition style with Art Nouveau details at the corner of the Westersingel and the Elisabethstraat, designed by an architect as yet unknown. Judging from the facade treatment, the design could be by Hendrik Kramer or Willem Cornelis de Groot, but the decorative Art Nouveau detailing suggests one of the brothers Hero or Sijtse Feddema. The evidence provided by the building itself is, however, too varied to reach an attribution.

Between the Westersingel, paved in 1872, and the tramway laid around 1900 that curved behind the present-day Elisabethstraat, lay a sizeable segment-shaped area that building contractor A.G. van de Meij purchased from the tramway company in 1902. He subdivided the area into building plots along the Westersingel and the curved Elisabethstraat, named after his daughter. He sold this corner plot in the summer of 1905 to cheese merchant Andries Tiemersma. He transferred the plot to his son Johannes, who became the building owner. He moved into the ground-floor dwelling with his wife, while he rented the upper-floor dwelling to a family Deibel with two sons. The building rose on the north-west corner of the Verlaatsbrug, which at that time still stood here and led to the south side of the Willemskade, thus marking a distinctive urban planning situation. The volumetric composition of the town house with its built-in corner tower and variously recessed and cut-off side sections is finely adapted to its position at the then-existing bridge. Now, after the relocation of the Verlaatsbrug, its position at the canal and the corner of the Elisabethstraat remains distinctive. Over the past few decades, the building has served office functions, as a result of which it has suffered some internal damage. The current owner has respected the existing characteristics and restored them where possible.

Description

EXTERIOR: Building on a mainly rectangular footprint with at the corner, at the entrance to the curved Elisabethstraat, a five-sided projecting tower volume; the other exposed corner is cut off. The northern section of the front facade, two windows wide, projects slightly; this is followed by a narrow access bay that does not project forward. At the rear, outbuildings for kitchen and storage from a slightly later period, executed in bright-red brick. Two storeys high and provided with a truncated hipped roof; on the tower volume an octagonal spire. Built of greyish-brown brick up to the intermediate sill of the upper windows; above this, flat rendered. Decorations in artificial stone have been applied to the brickwork from bottom to top in increasing quantity, by which means the substantial building, rising up, appears to become lighter. Flush-fitted windows below and above, with fanlights fitted with glazing bars and ochre-tinted glass. Access sections on either side of the risalit. To the right the door of the former upper-floor dwelling with an original sculptured door with segment arch and facet-cut panes in glazing bars and above it a bow-shaped oriel window with fanlights and an ornamented centre mullion and moulded cornice. On the left side a non-original glass door with fanlight fitted with glazing bars and for the upper storey a balcony resting on heavy consoles ornamented with whiplash forms, with a wrought-iron railing with curl forms for a glass door that opens. In the side facade a simple solid door with fanlight fitted with glazing bars. The storey window above it is fitted with etched glass in authentic Art Nouveau forms. In the side facade the chimney flue, which widens upwards, is partly left as masonry, the widenings resting on step-shaped artificial stone consoles. At the level of the lower, intermediate and upper sills, bands of artificial stone are incorporated into the facades. The lowest sill bands are placed fairly high, so that the sills and offsets appear to sink through the bands. Above the windows are simple arch drums enclosed by artificial stone segment arches with geometrical ornaments in sunken relief as if they were voussoirs and keystones. At upper-storey level the brickwork ends at the height of the intermediate sill with a roll course, after which render follows. There, at the height of the upper sill, a band of a brick course is incorporated. The upper windows are relieved there by rooster combs, furnished with voussoirs and keystones with geometric ornament in sunken relief. The facades are finished on all sides with a far-projecting cornice, resting on decoratively carved brackets, and at the risalit by consoles in corresponding form. The roof slopes are covered with slate roof tiles in overlapping courses. The tower corner is provided above the cornice with a heavy parapet of artificial stone, furnished with battlement crenellations and geometric ornament in sunken relief. On the roof slopes are chapels with lean-to roofs and on the tower spire triangular belvederes, crowned by pinnacles; the spire crowned by a ball and weathervane.

INTERIOR: The former dwellings are arranged with living rooms at the front, behind them a corridor across the full width, and at the rear the secondary spaces. The upper-floor dwelling has its entrance at the extreme north side behind which is a fairly narrow straight stair with a quarter turn upwards at the top. The entrance to the ground-floor dwelling in the front facade no longer functions; the side entrance is now used. All internal doors, original or restored, are of panel and framelight design with segment arch and facet-cut panes between glazing bars and substantially bordered by stiles in sunken relief decorated geometrically with quatrefoils on the projecting stile heads, between which are segment-shaped crests with geometric ornament. In the rooms simple rendered ceilings and several black marble fireplaces with Art Nouveau ornament; one decoratively marbled. Below the suite structure has disappeared; above the suite remains with sliding doors of decorative framelight and panels and cut glass. The slightly off-centre stairwell from storey to attic is provided at the top with a frame of framelight and cut glass. It is lit by a window with glazing bars and clear glass and is enlarged at the top with a later-added extension with coloured leaded glass in geometric form. The attic is almost completely undivided and reveals the original roof truss structure, including that of the tower spire, in full. The walls of the lower corridor and the present office space on the south-west side were painted in 1996 on the instruction of the current owner with dominant symbolic representations in the Scottish Art Nouveau manner by Jan Jepma.

VALUATION

The town house is of great general, architectural historical, architectural and urban planning importance

- as a characteristic building on a formerly important location that was formed by infrastructure developments and has since been altered, but which still demonstrates that development;

- on account of the imposing and lively volumetric composition with a corner tower section, and especially the well-preserved exterior and largely well-preserved interior architectural form in Transition style with detailing in Art Nouveau manner;

- on account of its distinctive urban planning location in the protected urban landscape of the singel area at the corner of the singel and, in important measure shaped spatially by this building, the entrance to the curved Elisabethstraat.