Amsterdam has De Wallen, Haarlem the Begijnhof and Alkmaar the Achterdam. Compared to the other two cities, window prostitution on the Achterdam is relatively new, but it has been located in the narrow street between the Dijk and the Zijdam for almost fifty years. It has been fifty eventful years.
Prostitute is considered the oldest profession in the world. Something that astronomers do not agree with, but that is another story. In Alkmaar people could find paid sex since the Middle Ages. Not on the Achterdam, because many of those activities took place in the Bordeelsteeg, the current Vrouwenstraat. The Christian church found prostitution reprehensible, but also necessary to protect other women against rape and virginity. It was therefore not approved, but allowed. There was always some form of regulation from the local government.
The national government introduced a system of regulations for the first time during the French occupation of the Netherlands. As a result, public women and brothel holders had to register with the police, among other things. After the French era, the regulations disappeared and the attitude towards the (regulation of) prostitution changed. Regulation in this area was seen as beneath the dignity of government. In 1856 there was finally a regulation in Alkmaar that put public women under strict supervision of the police and a municipal doctor. A little later there was also a register in which all women were listed. Brothels were allowed, but were not allowed to be visible and passers-by were not allowed to be lured in by the prostitutes and brothel owners. Due to pressure from society, brothels were increasingly banned in the Netherlands around the end of the nineteenth century. It came to Alkmaar in 1893. Prostitution went underground and found its place in houses and in the back and attic rooms of cafes.
And so it simmered for eighty years. Until 1973 Kees Nool bought his first building on the Achterdam and opened a brothel there . At that time, the street was still a place for traditional crafts such as a barrel maker, hat maker and rope maker. However, the residents of the Achterdam were not keen on the arrival of the brothel and window prostitution. Brothel tourism caused a lot of nuisance, especially because cars were still allowed to drive in the street. An advantage of the arrival of prostitution, on the other hand, was that old dilapidated buildings were refurbished and renovated to serve as brothels. At about the same time as the brothels, the first sex shops opened in Alkmaar.
Protests came from the city council and the working group Sanering Oostelijk Stadsdeel. All this resulted in a lot of (national) media attention. Avro's Televizier even made recordings on the Achterdam and interviewed residents. They were told that they felt unsafe and that they had experienced several threats from pimps and (drunken) visitors to the Achterdam. The film crew even spoke to the notorious pimp "Black Pierre" (Pierre Martinetti). He was not aware of any harm and thought he was doing a good job. Daughters could walk the streets quite quietly since the arrival of his prostitutes. A bit like the church used to look at prostitution.
Around 1974, window prostitution proved to be ineradicable. The Achterdam was the border street and people also realized that banning prostitution there would only move the problem and make it go underground, with all the consequences that entails. Regulation from the municipality and good consultation with the brothel owners was the only solution. Slowly but surely it became quieter around the street, which was now also closed to cars. Brothel owners also made a space available for the GGD where they could hold medical consultations for the prostitutes. A report from 1992 on the evaluation of medical consultation hours described the situation on the Achterdam in such a way that the Alkmaar approach could safely serve as a national example.
In 2000, prostitution was legalized in the Netherlands. Prostitutes were now independent entrepreneurs who had to register with the Chamber of Commerce. The Achterdam was equipped with camera surveillance and had its own security service. The ladies who worked there also all got an emergency button. The brothel holders, who did not have a financial interest in the work of the public women like pimps, took care, among other things, of cleaning the various rooms every three weeks.
Despite the positive developments, the brothel owners and the interest group for prostitutes were at odds with the municipality and residents' organization SOS1. The different groups tried to prove themselves right with research and reports. The case came to a head after the appointment of Mayor Bruinooge, who took a different approach than his predecessors. Possible human trafficking and criminal money flows were investigated and the newspapers were regularly full of them again. In the end, 67 windows had to close in 2018. More and more former buildings were also converted into homes. The last test for one of the most famous brothel streets in the Netherlands was the corona crisis. The ladies have now returned to work, but the last chapter on prostitution in Alkmaar has not yet been written.
People in the Spoorbuurt also suffered from the arrival of brothels in the 1970s. Things were often fierce between the residents and the pimps. Read more about it in the first blog of 2022 .
