Free audio walk in Amsterdam

The Theo Thijssen Walk

55 min
2.2 km
15 stops
Free

Starts at Eerste Leliedwarsstraat 18

About this walk

Few writers have captured Amsterdam's Jordaan as vividly as Theo Thijssen. Born and raised in this working-class neighbourhood in the late nineteenth century, he turned its narrow streets and canal-side life into timeless literature. His most beloved novel, Kees de jongen, follows a young boy navigating the same alleys you are about to walk.

This route was developed in collaboration between the Theo Thijssen Museum and ROODS, tracing the places that shaped him: schools, shops, and bridges that many still stand today. Welcome to his neighbourhood.

The stops

Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.

Map of the 15 stops on The Theo Thijssen Walk

1
Stop 1
Theo Thijssen's Birthplace
This is where Theo Thijssen was born, on 16 June 1879, the first child of shoemaker Sam Thijssen
2
Stop 2
Eerste Leliedwarsstraat 7
Theo Thijssen was five years old in 1885 when his family crossed the Nieuwe Leliestraat and moved into number 7 of the Eerste Leliedwarsstraat.
3
Stop 3
Kees de jongen Mural
During the 1960s, slum clearance opened up a little square here too: the 'Tuinplein'.
4
Stop 4
The Old Dutch Sweet Shop
Peppermint sticks, two for a penny, and you could happily suck them down to a lovely long point
5
Stop 5
Number School No. 25
Above the front door you'll spot a mosaic that reads: 'Public School for Ordinary Primary Education of the 1st Class No. 25'.
6
Stop 6
Theo Thijssenschool
This is the Theo Thijssen School as it stands today.
7
Stop 7
Pianòlamuseum
This street is so wide because until 1861 it was the Anjeliersgracht, a canal that once ran right here.
8
Stop 8
The Eel Riot of 1886
Right here, on the Lindengracht when it was still an open canal, the Eel Riot broke out on 25 July 1886.
9
Stop 9
Statue of Theo Thijssen
Back in 1978, publisher Geert van Oorschot and sculptor Hans Bayens decided it was high time that Theo Thijssen got a statue of his own.
10
Stop 10
The grocery years
Theo lived here until May 1894, when at fifteen he left to train as a teacher at the Rijkskweekschool in Haarlem.
11
Stop 11
The porter's family
One of the customers who got home deliveries from mother Thijssen's little shop was the large family of Gijs Otten, a porter.
12
Stop 12
Street Battles
As a self-respecting top-grader at your own school, you had to fight the odd pitched battle against the boys from other schools every now and then.
13
Stop 13
School Letter G
Between 1886 and 1892, Theo Thijssen attended Openbare Lagere School Letter G, a public primary school in Amsterdam.
14
Stop 14
Westertoren
At 85 metres tall, the tower of the Westerkerk was the highest building in the city well into the twentieth century, and it's been sung about in countless songs from the Jordaan neighbourhood.
15
Stop 15
Theo Thijssen Museum
We've come full circle.