Osdorp

Area

On the north, Osdorp is bordered by the artificial lake Sloterplas and the parks that surround it. Ookmeerweg forms its western border before turning into the reclaimed agricultural land of the Osdorper Binnenpolder. To the south and east, Osdorp merges with the newly-built neighbourhoods of De Aker and Nieuw Sloten which end at the Ringvaart canal.

History

As ‘East Village’, the original farming residents had their views traditionally more oriented east towards Haarlem and not west to Amsterdam. First mentioned around 1100, Osdorp is a peer of Amsterdam who still saw it fit to annex it in 1921.

Under the austerity of the post-WWII period, Osdorp was developed in the 1950s as a functionalist reaction to the more indulgent Amsterdam School of architecture, with more room given for traffic and less for commerce.

However the result was a sleepy suburb with indeed little space for smaller businesses but still with congested traffic. Now part of one of the largest urban renewal projects in Europe, Osdorp plans to have three times more properties available for private sale by 2015.

Highlights

Osdorp lives up to its name as a ‘park city’. Surrounded by huge swaths of green—including two picnic- and watersport- friendly bodies of water: Sloterplas and Nieuwe Meer—Osdorp is also laced with green bicycle corridors.

Its recent redevelopment included replacing old housing with several already iconic buildings by acclaimed modern architects, for example the ‘floating apartments’ of senior citizen residents Oklahoma by MVRDV. The enjoining Nieuw Sloten was built in the last decade as a ‘compact city’ with few high-rises and a sense of space.

Your neighbourhood

The area combines everything from high-rises to row housing to detached canal-side condominiums. As a neighbourhood with many families, children and seniors, the infrastructure for these groups has improved immensely in the last years by efforts by both government and community groups. Its innate multiculturalism is best experienced shopping on Osdorpplein with its covered market arcade Shoperade. Additionally, Osdorp’s Tuesday outdoor market on Tussenmeer was a finalist for the ‘best market of the Netherlands 2010.’

Eating, drinking, etc

The country’s most feared restaurant critic Johannes van Dam rates the herring sold at the fish stall on Osdorpplein as the best in the city—and that says a lot. As primarily a residential neighbourhood, however, Osdorp is not known for its cultural offerings.

Only the Meervaart Theatre brings in an eclectic mix of theatre, dance and music. And if belly-dancing is more your thing there’s the highly popular Turkish restaurant Bir Bey.