Stadstekenaar: Schevening Haven

As Stadstekenaar of The Hague, Philip Akkerman paints a cityscape of all districts of The Hague. This month: the harbour of Scheveningen.

Philip Akkerman asked Arie Spaans what he sees in the fifth city drawing. Spaans is a resident of Scheveningen and the first person in his family in the past 400 years to become a musician rather than a seafarer.
“This drawing shows part of the harbour area of Scheveningen, viewed from the perspective of the First Harbour (1904). In the foreground on the left is the grey building of the fishing company W. van der Zwan, situated on the spit of land between the former slipway and the passage to the Second Harbour (1930). In the foreground on the right is a section of the Third Harbour (1973), which was originally constructed for the Norfolk vessels. In the background, on both the left and right, are the (expensive) newly built apartment blocks that have been constructed over the past ten years. This part of Scheveningen, between Duindorp and the harbours, has undergone several dramatic changes in appearance since the beginning of the twentieth century.

Once, this was the site of the flushing canal with its connection to the open sea. During the construction of Duindorp, a small residential district (Eiland Vloek) was built here, on the opposite side of the locks. After this neighbourhood was demolished and the sea connection filled in, the parking area for Norfolk lorries was created here in the early 1970s, and until recently the Zuiderstrand Theatre stood on this site. In the centre of the drawing stands the old lock keeper’s house with its red roofs, which has weathered the storms of change and has now become a restaurant. The white streaks in the sky are something I have never seen before in this location.”

Arie Spaans