About This Location
Pause on the edge of De Wallen and take in the setting. Narrow alleys, leaning canal houses, and the soft curve of the water make this feel like old Amsterdam at its most intimate - and also its most talked about. This is one of the city’s oldest areas, built around the old harbor, where sailors and merchants once crowded the streets after dark. Now look along the canal edge of Oudezijds Achterburgwal. The famous red-lit windows are part of a regulated system of licensed sex work - visible, controlled, and strongly shaped by city rules. In this area, “window prostitution” is the most recognizable form, with hundreds of small one-room spaces facing the street. It helps to know one key date: on 1 October 2000, the Netherlands lifted the general ban on brothels, aiming to bring adult voluntary prostitution under regulation and to target coercion and trafficking. That legal framework is why so much here operates through permits and oversight, even as the city debates how the district should evolve. From here, spot the small crossing known as Majoor Bosshardtbrug. It is named after Alida Bosshardt, a The Salvation Army officer famous in the district for practical outreach and support. The bridge was officially named on 7 June 2013, and the name is a reminder that behind the neon and tourism, real social work has long been part of this neighborhood’s story. Keep your eyes moving and notice how closely everything sits together. Just a short walk away stands Oude Kerk, one of the city’s oldest landmarks, sharing the same small streets with bars, clubs, and window lights. That contrast is the whole point of De Wallen - medieval foundations with modern adult nightlife layered on top. Now turn toward Red Light Secrets, a museum set in a canal-house setting that tries to show what the window world looks like from the inside. It sits at Oudezijds Achterburgwal 60H, and it presents stories, rooms, and details that most people on the street never see. The museum opened in early February 2014, and it was widely described at the time as the world’s first prostitution museum. One last note while standing here: this area is not a theme park. Keep voices down, stay respectful, and never photograph sex workers in the windows. The district only makes sense when it is treated as a real neighborhood with real people - not a spectacle.