The Lloyd Hotel from 1918 until present
The Lloyd Hotel is located at the Oostelijke Handelskade. This is a two kilometres long island, constructed in 1875 when sailing ships were being replaced by increasingly bigger steamboats. The many warehouses at the Oostelijke Handelskade were named after the countries one was sailing to: Brazil, Panama, Argentina et cetera.
This is where the “De Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd” (KHL) had its headquarters located. The company transported a large number of emigrants from Europe to the Americas. Many of them were extremely poor people trying to escape poverty in Eastern Europe by rebuilding a new life elsewhere. During World War I the “Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd” company assigned the architect Evert Breman to design an emigrant’s hotel. With this facility the shipping company held a winning card in order to compete with other passenger shipping companies. While the emigrants were waiting to board one of the enormous passenger ships of the KHL, the necessary medical check-ups and disinfections could take place at the hotel.
1921 - 1935: emigrant’s hotel
In 1921 the emigrant’s hotel of the “Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd” opened its doors. It was built right before the “Amsterdamse School” reached its peak. The decorative brickwork of that style has been used for the building. Other than that the building has an eclectic style, with art-deco and even renaissance elements.
It had been built for eternity, but already after only fourteen years it was over: emigration had not taken off the way the KHL had hoped for. In the twenties the company was in great distress a couple of times. Financial aid by the government and the city was endowed to help the KHL survive. It only helped for a short time: in 1935 the “Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd” had to file for bankruptcy.
1940 - 1989: prison
The isolated location combined with the sturdy construction made the former hotel an ideal prison. The German occupier, who only days after the February strike of 1941 converted the building into a prison, recognized this. The name ‘Lloyd Hotel’ therefore would get a gruesome meaning during wartime. Initially only members of the resistance were being kept prisoners at the Lloyd Hotel. Once the place became a regular house of detention, all kinds of people served time there; people active in underground activities, short sentenced people, people awaiting their trial and after the war so-called NSB’ers (people who had co-operated with the Germans).
Characteristic of detention in the Lloyd Hotel was the fact that prisoners did not have their own cell, but instead were locked together in large spaces. This was creating big problems for the house of detention’s management. In 1963 the Lloyd Hotel ceased to exist as a detention centre for adults. In 1964 the building was turned into a detention centre for juveniles. Rather than locking them up as adults in an isolated cell in those days an alternative treatment was being looked for. The characteristics of the Lloyd Hotel neatly fitted the requirements for such alternative treatment.
1989 - 1999: workshops
From 1989 until 1999 the city of Amsterdam rented out the Lloyd Hotel to the Spinoza Foundation, which rented it mostly to artists who used the space as workshops. The building continued to become impoverished. However, the surroundings of the Lloyd Hotel were constantly being renovated and renewed, a process that the Lloyd Hotel inevitably had to go through as well. Therefore, the city of Amsterdam decided to organize a competition: the building was to be developed by the party who put the building at its best use. The Lloyd Hotel as a hotel with a lot of different rooms and a Cultural Embassy, was the preferred plan by the city of Amsterdam. In 1997 work has started to materialize the plans. 11 November 2004 the Lloyd Hotel was oficially reopened as 1 to 5 star hotel.
