Living in Hoofddorppleinbuurt, Amsterdam

Almost everything in Amsterdam Zuid was built to Berlage's Plan Zuid. The Hoofddorppleinbuurt was not: it belongs to Plan West, went up in the 1920s on land taken from the municipality of Sloten in 1921, and sits on the far side of the Schinkel from the rest of Oud-Zuid. That strip of water is the whole point of the place. It keeps the buurt quiet, it keeps it cheaper than its neighbours, and it means you cross a bridge every time you go anywhere.

What it is

Not quite a hundred hectares of low-key residential streets, bounded by the Surinameplein and Surinamestraat to the north, the Schinkel to the east, the A10 ring and the Henk Sneevlietweg to the south, and the Westlandgracht to the west. The streets are named after nineteenth-century painters and after villages south-west of the city, which is a fair description of where the buurt sits in the mental map of Amsterdam: at the edge, facing outward. It is overwhelmingly housing, with relatively few businesses for its size, and the housing is solid interwar brick, three and four storeys, plainer than the Plan Zuid blocks across the water. The Zeilbrug has linked it to the Amstelveenseweg since 1927 and is still the main way in from the east. From around 2010 the buurt started drawing students, young professionals and families priced out of Oud-Zuid proper, and the cafes followed.

Who lives here

A mix that has shifted in one direction for fifteen years. The older layer is families and long-term Amsterdam households in ordinary flats; the newer one is people who wanted Oud-Zuid and could not afford it, which is a large and growing group. Flats are mid-sized rather than tiny, which makes the buurt workable for sharing, and the private rental market is more active here than in the association-heavy Stadionbuurt. Prices are below the Apollobuurt and the Museumkwartier and above the buurten further west, which is a fair summary of the whole neighbourhood.

What it's like during the day

Quiet, ordinary and green along the water. The Sloterkade and the Schinkel quays are the good part, with houseboats, rowing crews and a proper waterside walk; the interior streets are plain residential blocks with parked bikes and small shops. Hoofddorpplein itself is the centre of gravity, a modest square rather than a grand one. Nothing here is a destination, and on a weekday afternoon the buurt is empty in the way that residential Amsterdam usually is.

What it's like in the evening

Calm. There are cafes and restaurants around Hoofddorpplein and along the main streets, enough for a local dinner and a drink, but no crowd and no late scene. The nearest real evening is in Oud-West, over the water and about ten minutes by bike, or in De Pijp, further east. What the buurt offers instead is silence: this is one of the quieter addresses you can hold inside the ring road.

Getting around

Tram 2 runs from Hoofddorpplein straight to Centraal, which is the single most useful line here, and at Surinameplein on the northern edge trams 1, 17 and 27 add connections west into Nieuw-West and east into the centre. Station Amsterdam Lelylaan is seven to eight minutes by bike for trains, and the metro station at Henk Sneevlietweg is a short ride west of the buurt boundary. By bike the Vondelpark is six or seven minutes, Station Zuid ten to thirteen, and the Dam nineteen to twenty-four, which is the honest number: this is a real ride from the centre, and the bridges over the Schinkel and the Westlandgracht set the routes. Check which bridge you would use daily before choosing a street.

Eating and shopping

Adequate and improving rather than abundant. Daily shopping is covered around Hoofddorpplein and the streets leading off it, with supermarkets, bakeries and a run of cafes that has grown noticeably since the buurt started to change. For range you cross the water: Oud-West and the Ten Katemarkt are about ten minutes by bike, the Amstelveenseweg strip a little less, and De Pijp with the Albert Cuypmarkt around fifteen. Nobody moves here for the shopping; people move here for the rent and the quiet, and shop elsewhere.

When NOT to pick it

If you want to be in the middle of things, this is deliberately not that: the buurt is residential to the point of dullness, the centre is a twenty-minute ride, and everything social happens on the other side of a bridge. It is the wrong choice if you want nightlife on your street or a strong neighbourhood identity, and Oud-West or De Pijp would give you both at a higher price. It is the right choice if you want a decent flat at a below-Oud-Zuid rent, water and rowing boats at the end of the street, a direct tram to Centraal and the Vondelpark six minutes away, and if you would rather cross a bridge than pay the premium for being on the other side of it.