When walking through the city it won’t take long for you to notice that most houses have the same look: they’re relatively narrow, but tall; and almost entirely made of brick. In fact, this style of architecture is not unique to Amsterdam but to all of the Netherlands. And there is a reason for this. When the city taxed homeowners’ houses hundreds of years ago, the tax rate was based solely on the width of their houses. Height and overall square footage didn’t matter. So this encouraged people to build their houses high, but not wide.
Of course if you were wealthy and could afford a house on the newly built canal belt in the 1600s, paying property taxes wasn’t a burden. You splurged for space and a wide house was proof of your wealth and status.
There are also houses where the original owners went entirely in the other direction, and made their houses very thin and smaller than your average house in the city.
On many city tours you will pass by at least one of these houses, and there are two in particular that guides like to call the “smallest house in Amsterdam”. But that is not entirely true… one might have the narrowest width, one might have the thinnest façade, but only one has the smallest square footage overall. Here are the candidates in no particular order. Let’s compare:
Singel 7
This house gets the most people, especially the canal tour boats , labeling it incorrectly as the smallest house. When you look at the house, you are surprised to see that the front of the house is not wider than the width of the door. At 1.05 meters wide, Singel 7 has the smallest front façade in the city. But from the front, the house gets wider as you go further back. The owner/builder was very smart, because property taxes were not only based on the width of your house, but only on the width of the façade of the house (or front or canal facing side). So he made the back wider to 5 meters so he could get more square meters without increasing his tax bill.
Kloveniersburgwal 26
This house is part of famous Amsterdam folklore involving the house across the street, or on the other side of the canal, at Kloveniersburgwal 29. Known as the Trippenhuis, it was built by the Trip brothers, who were wealthy arms and ammunition manufacturers. Instead of building their house in the new canal belt on the west side of the city, they chose this address to build the widest house of Amsterdam. As the story goes, the brothers overheard their coachman saying to someone, “if only I had a house as wide as one of their front doors, I would be very happy”.
Upon hearing this, the brothers set out to make their coachman happy and built him the small house across the canal at 26. From a front of 2.4 meters, the house grows to 6 meters on its backside.
Keen eyes will notice the date of construction painted on the front gable: 1696. This is evidence that the folklore about the Trip coachman might not be true as the Brothers Trip died before this house was built. In any case, on one side of the canal you have one of the widest houses across from one of the narrowest houses.
Singel 166
This cute house not only stands out for its thin width, but also for its pretty mauve color and arch of roses around its front door. The original owner from the 1600s was also very clever. Deceivingly, the width of the front is 1.8 meters, but the house is 16 meters deep and widens out in the back to 5 meters. Next to the Torensluis Bridge, this is a popular stop on many walking tours.
Oude Hoogstraat 22
Sitting on the edge of the Red Light District next door to the old Amsterdam offices of the Dutch East India Company, this is arguably the cutest house of all the 4, with its redbrick exterior and being home to the smallest tea shop in Amsterdam. Originally built in 1738 as a one-story building, the building extended to 3 floors during the end of the 1700s. Its front width measures 2 meters and is 5 meters deep. Although it doesn’t have the skinniest front façade, because it doesn’t widen out in the back, like the others, it’s overall square meters is less than the other 3 houses… therefore making it the real Smallest House in Amsterdam. You can visit the tea shop and say “hi” to owner Niels and his wife. We buy our tea here and it’s always a treat to go inside.
Most of our city walk routes go by at least one of these houses and one route, in particular goes by all 4! If you are interested in booking one of our group or private walking tours, please go here for more info and to book: www.Amsterdam AndYou.com.
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