You're standing in front of number 242, a narrow façade wedged between the office buildings, its small windowpanes clouded brown with more than a century of cigarette smoke. When Appie Scheltema opened his café here in the spring of 1908, the building was still a milk parlour, and the street was lined with newspaper offices. The had been based here since 1828, and over time De Telegraaf, Het Parool, de Volkskrant, Trouw and De Waarheid moved in too, which turned the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal into the Dutch .
Scheltema became their canteen, where from around eight in the morning every faith and political conviction leaned against the same bar. If you had news and wanted it out fast, you phoned here, because one call reached all the newsrooms at the same time. , now one of the country's main political parties, was practically founded here, with , who at the time still worked at a newspaper himself, and , one of the Netherlands' best known journalists, kept coming until shortly before his death.
By the late seventies the newsrooms had moved to the Wibautstraat and the street fell quiet, while the interior stayed exactly as it was. Wim de Lange, who started here as a waiter in 1961, bought the place in 1967, and his children still pour the drinks. It's closed on Sundays.
As we carry on, we follow the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal down to the Spui, and there we duck into the Rozenboomsteeg.
Sources. Story: Gemeente Amsterdam, De Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal: brandpunt van de revolutie; Oneindig Noord-Holland, In café Scheltema bén je iemand; Café Restaurant Scheltema, Over ons; Wikipedia, Scheltema (café) Photos: Jacob Olie, Collectie Stadsarchief Amsterdam, via Wikimedia Commons
