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So you think you are not able to find red lights at the Singel, Spuistraat, The NieuwezijdsvoorburgWAL or the Oude Nieuwstraat ? Even in the Bergstraat hookers are located. Old Sailor bar, Bananabar and Cassa Rosso als in within walking distance...

Correct me if I'm wrong, never been there


The Singel/Spui district

Exiting the station and crossing the bridge, this time we will turn right. Our heading is the Victoria hotel. Look for it up ahead to your right as you cross the intersection. Turning right, in front of the hotel, walk up Prins Hendrikkade to the next crossing, cross the street, and turn left onto Martelaarsgracht. You?ll pass "The Internet C@fé" (sole survivor of the once flourishing Amsterdam Internet Café scene), across the street on the left.

Next crossing is the shopping street Nieuwendijk. If you were to go left onto Nieuwendijk, you will after a while end up at Dam Square. If you turn right you will come to the Singel Canal. Singel you say, that is where we are going. Let?s push ahead! But hold your horses for a while. Let?s take another path, so that our route takes us past all the (94) windows in the Singel/Spui RLD.

If you are hungry, stop in at the "Soup Kitchen" in the crossing. It is a pretty good place for an English-style artery clogging breakfast. If not hungry, cross the street, and continue down the street, which has, by the way, changed names to Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal.

Up ahead, on the left, the Crown Plaza Hotel. You are now facing a "Y" in the road. Follow to the left beside the Sint Nicolaas Hotel and continue down Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal.

Across the street, past a couple of restaurants, you will see "Blue Boy" and "Why Not", a gay sex cinema and club.

Ahead of you, just before Amsterdam City Centre Hotel, is Korte Kolk Steeg. Turn right. On this street you will find the first windows, 4 of them. It?s a short street, and in no time you will be standing on Spuistraat. And why not take a look up and down Spuistraat? You will find 2, sometimes 3, floors with window girls. Some that you can see from where you stand, behind you on the right and several further south on Spui, to your left. Spuistraat, with 28 windows, has the highest number of windows of any single street in the area, but they?re scattered up and down the street.

Let?s continue our walk up the street that we were just on. Crossing the Spuistraat, the street name now changes to Korte Korsjespoort Steeg. Again a very short walk up to the next crossing. To your right you have Teerketelsteeg, with 3 windows on the top of the 3rd floor, and to your left Nieuw Oude Straat. "Middlepunkt", a brothel room rental place at number 5, is beside you on your left

Turn left at "Middelpunkt", and walk up Nieuw Oude Straat. The 22 windows are clustered on both ends of this street. At the end of Nieuw Oude Straat, we will be turning right, but have a quick look to your left on Lijnbaanstraat and you'll find 2 new windows, just around the corner.

And now, for the first time, we come up to Singel itself, the canal. Singel is the oldest and innermost of the 4 canals which comprise the girdle of canals (Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht, Prinsengracht) which surround the old centre of Amsterdam. The Singel is not to be confused with another canal of the same name, Singelgracht, a fifth perimeter canal.

If you look to your right you?ll find some windows on this side along the Singel. Here you will normally find Asian (Thai) girls, and also an occasional Asian "ladyboy" or two. Further up north on Singel you will find more windows. We?ll return to the Singel, a bit later, as we complete the circuit.

Cross the Singel canal on the bridge, Linjbaansbruug. After you have crossed take an immediate left and walk down Singel on the right (east) side. The first street you will come to is Bergstraat. Turn right.

Bergstraat serves mainly locals. It?s rather quiet, no camera-toting tourist groups and no drunken visiting football fans either. 10 windows in total. At the end on the left side you will find a coffeeshop, "Amnesia" on the corner of Bergstraat and Herengracht.

You?re now at Herengracht (Gentlemen?s canal). Turn right, north along the Herengracht. Just before the next bridge, Blauburgwal, you?ll pass Sauna Deco, at number 115, a wonderful sauna which takes pride in it?s elegant art deco furnishings which were salvaged from a 1920?s Parisian department store, housed in a building designed by the great Dutch architect, Berlage.

Crossing the bridge, the Blauwburgwal canal is below you on your right. Blauwburgwal is a cosy little canal, enjoy the picturesque view at this lovely intersection.

On the other side of the bridge, to your left, across the Herengracht, lies the Herenstraat. There?s lots of "Dutchiness" to be found here, and on the following streets. Cosy flower shops, cosy atmospheric restaurants, cosy antiques shops, cosy art galleries, etc. Raging cosiness, if you will.

Continue straight ahead up the Herengracht leaving the Blauburgwal behind you. At the next street, Korsjespoortsteeg, you will turn right. Just ahead of you, to your left, the Multatuli Museum dedicated to the great Dutch philosopher and freethinker.

Immediately to your right, nearly directly across from Multituli, you?ll find 2 windows. Continuing up to Lange Straat, and crossing over, you will find several more windows. This section of Korsejespoortsteeg appeared in the 1989 Timothy Dalton vehicle, a film called "Hawks", which was financed with the star power (soon lost) he had acquired after his first stint as James Bond, 007. It was a forgettable melodrama about a terminally ill man having a final fling in Amsterdam. If you get a chance to see it, you?ll enjoy how the filmmakers "dressed" the street with every manner of tawdry and garish rubbish, to make it their idea and perhaps by extension, the average persons idea, of what a red light district should look like. It was a far cry from the reality of the quiet, typically Amsterdam street you now stand on.

We?re back at the Singel canal. Cross the bridge. On the other side you?ll find a couple of more windows on Singel . A couple close to the crossing, both left and right, and 2 more, a bit further north along Singel close to the dome of the old Lutheran Church. (Guess what Church...LOL)


Well, that?s it. You've made a complete circuit of the Singel area.

For a complete tour: Click here and take a closer look at the redlightdsitrict tour

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