The gasholders
Circular industrial halls turned event spaces.
David van der Mark โ CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท acediscovery โ CC BY 4.0 ยท Fons Heijnsbroek โ CC0 ยท Marion Golsteijn โ CC BY-SA 4.0
The Vondelpark is the best known and closest to the Museum Quarter, the default choice but the most crowded. The Westerpark for its reused industrial setting, cafes and events. The Oosterpark is quieter and more local, with the slavery monument. The Amsterdamse Bos to the south is three times the size of New York's Central Park and needs half a day. For a two-day visit the Vondelpark is enough; for a longer stay the Westerpark rewards an evening.
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The Westerpark lies west of central Amsterdam, and its main value is what stands inside it: the Westergasfabriek โ a late nineteenth-century gasworks that closed in 1967 and left heavily contaminated ground, then was wholly repurposed. The clean-up took years and cost a great deal, and it was not the obvious decision: demolishing the industrial buildings would have been easier. Instead the gasholders, halls and coal workshops were restored and given new uses โ a cinema in one hall, cafes and restaurants in others, and exhibition spaces, concert venues, studios and a theatre in the rest. The result is one of Europe's more successful examples of industrial land reuse, and a space Amsterdammers rather than tourists come to: lawns to sit on, playgrounds, running routes, and a market at weekends. The park is free and open; the buildings keep their own hours.
Circular industrial halls turned event spaces.
A local atmosphere off the tourist routes.
Westergasfabriek, 1014 Amsterdam