Woonhuis, Kanaaldijk West 2

English translation

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Description

Introduction

SERVICE DWELLING of the ferry house type, with SMALL SHED from 1891 designed in 1888 in the Neo-Dutch Renaissance style, built by order of Rijkswaterstaat. The service dwelling on the Kanaaldijk West is located between the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal and the railway line Utrecht-Amsterdam lying west of it. The building was partly incorporated into the dike structure by the later raising of the canal bank.

The property served as a dwelling for the ferryman for the foot ferry 'De Aa'. The ferry was put into operation in 1892 and still functions. To the north of the dwelling is an identical dwelling for the ferry-crossing keeper.

Description

The dwelling house is built in grey brickwork (in cross bond with cavity, with rendered trash frame and flush pointing) from a rectangular ground plan. The detached, partially cellaried building volume consists of one storey with a gabled roof covered with suppressed pan tiles. On the rear facade (west side) there is a lower extension under a catslide roof and a brick coal chute for the cellar. The eastern roof slope is intersected by a non-original roof dormer. There are two brick chimneys. On the ridge is decorative ironwork with a copper weathervane. The facades are articulated by cemented and white-painted bands and corner stones. The ventilation grilles of the cavity consist of cast iron rosettes. The straight-sided windows and door in the first storey are executed with arched fields with multicoloured decorative brickwork under semicircular relieving arches with cemented blocks and voussoirs. The windows are provided with wooden panel shutters and T-sash windows with natural stone sills. The three-bay, symmetrically arranged front facade (east side) contains a centrally placed entrance with natural stone step, batten door with wrought iron hinges and lock and fanlight. The long sides are terminated with brick decorative strips and rendered gutter blocks under a profiled wooden drip moulding. The rear door in the extension on the west side is executed as in the front facade with a richly mounted wooden door and natural stone step. The wooden front porch with flat roof is non-original. The gable ends (north and south facades) are stepped gables with profiled coping stones. In the top is a brick, corbelled gable ornament with a stone segmental arched pediment as a crown. Wrought iron ornamental wall anchors are used in the upper gable. In the top gables there is each one straight-sided window with cock's comb and a wooden fixed frame. The interior arrangement is largely original. The brick shed is built from a rectangular ground plan. The gabled roof between stepped gables with high built-up shoulders, is covered with suppressed flat Friesian tiles. The front facade facing the dwelling has a door placed under a roll course and above it a shutter. The wooden extension on the rear facade is of subsidiary importance.

Valuation

The dwelling with associated shed is of general importance because of the cultural and architectural-historical value as a well-preserved example of a service dwelling from 1891 in Neo-Dutch Renaissance style, built by order of Rijkswaterstaat, and because of its function as an expression of and reminder of the history of the canal. The dwelling has ensemble value because of the relationship with the nearby ferry-crossing keeper's dwelling and because of its prominent location on the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal and the spatial-functional relationship with this canal. Of architectural importance as an early example of a construction method with the application of a cavity.

Cultural-historical description

The construction of the Merwede Canal in the eighteen-eighties and eighteen-nineties of the nineteenth century was to ensure a good water connection between Amsterdam and the Merwede. The section from Amsterdam to the Lek was completed in 1891. In the period 1931-1956 the canal was widened and diverted and received the name the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal. Waterstaat built a large number of service dwellings along the Merwede Canal according to a standard type, including for the housing of the bridge and lock keepers of the bridges over the canal and the locks in the waterways and ditches that connected to this water. The canal intersects at the location of the service dwelling the Honderdschen polder and the Breukelerwaard. In consultation with the waterboard Breukelerwaard it was agreed that Waterstaat would construct a ferry with landing places and an unloading place. With the Waterboard of the Honderdschen polder to the west Waterstaat agreed on the construction of a ferry-crossing. The operation of both ferry-crossing and ferry was free of charge.

The service dwellings were executed according to a Waterstaat design from 1888 in the Neo-Dutch Renaissance style. The general type of service dwelling was built with an associated brick shed, as a single dwelling and as a mirrored double dwelling. All dwellings were executed with a cavity and are early examples of this construction method.