St. Catharijne Gasthuis Hospital Wing To Be Saved In New Aalmarkt Plan

GOOD NEWS: St. Catharijne Gasthuis Hospital Wing To Be Saved In New Aalmarkt Plan

20/09/2001
By Jeremy Bangs

On September 19, Leiden's town government and the MAB Development representatives presented their new Plan for the Aalmarkt Area. After much public attention and protests about the original intention to demolish historic monuments for the sake of a shopping center, the plans have been redrawn so that the registered historic monuments in the Aalmarkt blocks are spared. This means that the St. Catharine's Hospital wing identified by G. V. C. Young as the place where Myles Standish recuperated from wounds received while a soldier in the Dutch army will be preserved. Myles Standish, the Pilgrims' military leader, was a soldier in the Dutch wars and he became a friend of Rev. John Robinson's in Leiden. A document from 1601 indicates that a wounded British soldier listed as "Myls Stansen" was brought here from the Siege of Ostende. This hastily scrawled hospital entry which is considered a reference to him would place Standish among the many English soldiers garrisoned in Leiden. An important social building from the 16th-century, this hospital building was discovered to be largely intact during the surveys that were carried out by the city to provide information used in drawing up the new plans. It is presently used as a concert location but will be renovated for other use, probably commercial. Redevelopment has been proposed that would involve renovating the historic monuments and constructing stylistically appropriate new shops and housing in vacant lots and as replacements for a number of non-registered buildings.

There are details of the proposed buildings that will arouse opposition from local residents because of various legitimate concerns. A parking garage is included, despite objections that this would create congestion and alleviate nothing. Several buildings are proposed that would fill up the few remaining garden areas and cause the destruction of registered monumental trees. A much-loved school building is slated for demolition instead of renovation. A new alley is to be built in the area across the Rhine River, with a new bridge, to connect another shopping street with this area. Area residents deny the need for this and decry the demolition of three registered historic monuments (houses) that would disappear to create the alley. Several monumental houses now used as residences would loose their rear windows because of new construction right up to their walls. That is contrary to international standards of monument protection. The merits of these objections will be argued in the legal process that begins now the new plans have been published.

For those of us concerned about the preservation of Pilgrim monuments, however, the news is good: the St. Catherine's Hospital wing associated with Myles Standish will be saved. This has been achieved to a great extent because of the serious hope on the part of many people that a new plan could be drawn up that would incorporate the historic monuments in the re-development plans. The city has responded to their hopes with this plan, and for that I am grateful.

Personally, however, I shall submit a written statement praising those aspects of the plan that I find excellent, particularly the preservation of the St. Catherine's Hospital, but at the same time objecting to what I see affecting my own house. While the house is preserved, the garden space behind it would be filled with new commercial construction which, in the published plans, would brick up my kitchen windows (on the second floor!), take away the registered monumental tree, and leave no light in the house. No doubt this is a mistake, and my friends tell me it is against the law in any case to brick up a neighboring house's windows. So I hope that the informal assurance I have that this is a draftsman's error will be born out in a formal response.

That the city has revised its original proposals in a way that preserves almost all the historic monuments encourages the hope that reasonable objections will be studied and that improvements to the plans may be made. This hope could turn out to be naively idealistic, as the project developer is clearly driven by a desire to maximize floor space. Nonetheless, the aldermen responsible for the present plan (Alexander Pechtold, Melanie Schultz van Haegen, and Ron Hillebrand) have brought about a change for which they deserve credit, placing the major historic monuments out of risk.

Informally, with regard to a concern that runs parallel to the Aalmarkt preservation issues, throughout the summer the Vrouwekerk Square was protected from vandalism and provided with attractive flowers. The city's attitude to this important symbol of Pilgrim and Huguenot origins appears to be changing towards positively. I have met with urban landscape designers hired by the city to conceive new plans that would incorporate preservation of the historic ruins of the church . When these plans are finished and presented for approval to the city council, we hope that they will be welcomed. Leiden would then be demonstrating an ongoing care for the historic heritage we share.

- Jeremy Bangs