Eden Savoy Hotel, Rotterdam, 5th June 2008
Here in the Netherlands on a three-day trip with a delegation from the English Historic Towns Forum to see how the Dutch care for their historic environment. A full day ahead, so out of the hotel at 8.15 am, hurrying to the coach pick-up. It was delayed; we stood impatiently under the dripping trees for the better part of an hour.
First stop, the fortified city of s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch), capital of the province of North Brabant – the painter Hieronymus Bosch was born here around 1450. Dropped off at the The Jheronimus Bosch Art Centre located in the former New St. James Church (1907), where representatives from the municipality gave a short presentation on conservation of the built environment in the city. A canal trip in the rain then lunch and a Q and A session back at the Centre. Impressions? Great vision and commitment backed up by real resources.
On to Dordrecht, the oldest and fifth largest city in the province of North Holland. A watery place on an island bordered by five rivers. We started with a visit to ‘t Zeepaert House, one of the best-preserved Gothic houses in the Netherlands dating from 1495. It was built on the remains of a stone house from 1300 and is crowned by a richly decorated gothic stepped gable of Namur stone. An afternoon of discovery: decorative gables and distinctive shop fronts; waterways and working boats; imaginative landscaping, lighting and public art; and a water tower converted to 37-bed hotel. Conservation is integrated into all the municipality’s policies and there is money available for regeneration and mortgages at low interest rates.
Coach to Rotterdam with a Black and Red notebook full of thoughts and ideas, the freely shared wisdom of others: a catalogue of optimism likely be shredded in the cold wind of local authority parsimony back home.