We’ve recently come across a video that we think you’d really enjoy, for all of you history geeks out there.
It’s video footage of The Hague in 1937, a whole lifetime and world ago.
What’s interesting about the video is the path the car drives through. It starts going towards Noordeinde, passing where Panorama Mesdag is nowadays. It continues down on Noordeinde, passing the Royal Palace and reaching all the way to the other end of the street, where nowadays The Sting shopping centre is.
What’s even more interesting is the footage from the middle to the end of the video. It contains footage of areas of The Hague that now look radically different. It passes by a canal that nowadays is where Zwarteweg and Uilebomen intersect. The next area that looks radically different is the last long stretch in the video, which starts from around Schilderswijk and goes towards HS train station on Hoekade. Most of the district was demolished in the 70s in a (bad) attempt at modernizing the area.
Another fun detail in the video is that the driver almost runs over pedestrians or almost crashes into another car once or twice per minute or so. It seems that Dutchies back then didn’t care to look twice when crossing the street (which makes sense, given the low traffic).
What other details did you enjoy from the video? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Feature Image: janwillemsen/Flickr/CC2.0
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in August 2020, and was fully updated in January 2021 for your reading pleasure.
