History
Every stone has its story
Lloyd’s continuing story began in 1921, when a hotel for migrants was opened along the Oostelijke Handelskade. Its architect was Evert Breman, who was commissioned by the Royal Dutch Lloyd, the foremost shipping company in the busy eastern harbour area. The Lloyd Hotel was designed to cope with 900 people at a time. The ground floor, with its high ceilings, housed a dining room that could seat 350 guests. In addition there was a shop and a large residents’ lounge.
Adjoining was a kosher kitchen, and a room to accommodate 52 Jewish guests. There were separate dormitories for men and women, in the side wing there were family quarters, and there was even a small sick bay with a modest number of beds.
Between 1921 and 1923, an extension was added to the east side of the Lloyd Hotel for the purposes of decontamination; only the east wing still exists. This has now been restored and was turned into artists’ studios and an art gallery café.
All travellers used to have to enter the hotel by the decontamination building, and if they were declared healthy they were allowed to cross into the hotel via an underground corridor.
During World War II, after the February Strike of 1941, the Germans used the Lloyd Hotel as a remand prison. After the war the building continued to be used for this purpose, first as a detention centre for Dutch collaborators with the occupiers, and between 1964 and 1989 it was used as a prison for young offenders. The interior of the building was originally well cared for, but its long period as a prison left its marks. Until 2001 it had a social function as a place for artists to live and work.
Book
In November 2004, publishing house Bas Lubberhuizen published a book by Annette Lubbers on the history of the Lloyd Hotel (in Dutch).
The cost is € 29,50. The book is for sale in the Lloyd Hotel. For further information please contact
Wieneke ’t Hoen. t: +31 (0) 20- 6184132
Documentary
31 January 2005 a Documentary was shown about the Lloyd Hotel on the Dutch National Television.
The documentary was made by Micaele van Rijckevorsel (dir) en Jeroen Visser (prod)
Lloyd Hotel, Portret van een gebouw
