Did you know the Tolhuistuin has always been one of Amsterdam’s most popular parks? It started out as the place where you waited for the ferry to the city centre. When a teahouse was added around 1770, the area came to life. A hundred years later and the area had a bowling alley and a dance floor and open-air concerts. See the painting of A summer evening at the Tolhuis. Those Amsterdammers are having a great old time.

From hotspot to industrial zone

With the growth of Noord as an industrial area, conviviality came to an end. Shell took over the site and the gardens was walled in. For seventy years, the Tolhuistuin was at the heart of the fossil fuel industry. In 2009, the oil giant moved out and sold the gardens to the municipality, allowing the Tolhuis area to flourish again as a cultural centre.