Amsterdam “Het Schipperskwartier" Citichat 31 October 2008

CITICHAT 43/2008 - 31 October 2008


“Het Schipperskwartier – een verleidelijk stukje Antwerpen”.

The Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), the International Institute of Urban Management of Erasmus University, Rotterdam, runs a variety of short urban related courses annually in addition to their Masters and other longer Programme. I have been fortunate to lecture on one of their short courses, Urban Management and Private Public Partnerships, for a couple of years. The course attracts international interest. Last year the participants were mostly from north, west and east Africa - this year they were from Moldavia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, the Cameroons and the Netherlands itself. The course is an excellent mix of theory and practice and includes visiting a number of urban renewal projects in various cities, all easily accessible from Rotterdam. I unfortunately wasn’t able to be present for the whole course due to other commitments, so missed the visit to Amsterdam projects but managed to pick up the visits to Lille and Roubaix in France and Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium as well as having a quick look again at Rotterdam.

As I only flew in late last night, I thought I’d tell you about my visit to one of Antwerp’s Red Light Districts - , no it was strictly urban renewal business and one of the most holistic approaches to urban redevelopment project I’ve seen, and a highly successful one too - “Het Schipperskwartier” in Antwerp.

Prostitution and the need to clean out the centre of the city’s main venue for counterfeit goods, led to an urban redevelopment project that has resulted in a major turn-around in an important precinct in the city and attracted a great deal of new investment.

The area, traditionally known as Het Schipperskwartier, edges on part of the Antwerp docks and thus has always attracted a certain amount of prostitution. The area was, however, what could be described as typical European mixed-use with lots of people living in street apartments or housing and with all the trappings of community living - cinemas and gyms, schools, grocers, the butcher, the baker and a number of prostitutes. A local says that it was one of those areas where everyone knew everyone else. Sex workers and locals lived comfortably side by side. Then came the fall of the Berlin Wall and the city, and this area in particular, was inundated with sex workers and pimps from eastern Europe. The pimps proved to be part of a larger criminal mafia and the area became a hotspot for the selling of counterfeit goods and all kinds of criminal activity. Most of the locals moved out. When the baker left, he was replaced with a lady from Brussels, Jeanneau, who introduced window prostitution by skilfully lighting up the ex-baker’s window where the main display was now herself! Soon, the narrow streets of the area were jammed with cars checking out the ladies – it became known as the Carousel - sometimes as many as 4000 cars packed the streets. One houseowner next to the ex-bakery, was considerably annoyed because whenever the cars drove past to check Jeanneau’s evidently abundant charms, they inevitably crashed into his wall ripping off the downpipe! The area went into major decline and eventually the local community declared that life had become unbearable and in 1997 drew up a petition demanding that the City do something. The problem was passed onto the Police and the Planning Department.

The Planning Department started in-depth research into the history and possible use of the area as well as of the needs of the prostitutes. A spatial plan helped them define the boundaries of the precinct and determine the existing functions and connections with the rest of the city but also a number of possible new ones. There were two squares in the precinct, one of them had become known as “Red Square” because of the origin of the people selling illegal goods and also because it was the centre of criminal activity involving all the surrounding shops.

The research into prostitution revealed that there were about 280 “window prostitutes” spread over thirteen streets in the precinct living in generally extremely bad conditions.

All Council departments were brought together to determine a future strategy for the area. This resulted in four principles being adopted for the redevelopment of the precinct:

1. prostitution mustn’t cause trouble in the precinct

2. the criminal element must be dealt with

3. the prostitutes position shouldn’t be interfered with

4. the precinct should be renovated

The police progressively charged all those involved and closed down their activities and, gradually the area emptied out.

The Planning Department determined that a triangular area in the heart of the precinct, bordered by three streets, could accommodate all the prostitutes spread out over thirteen streets. New Policy was drawn up limiting window prostitution to this specific area and drawing up minimum standards for their ‘homes’. The three streets were pedestrianised thus removing the vehicle problems in the area. The City then got busy upgrading the environment. One of the problems they encountered was that, although they had got rid of all the criminal activities, the shops around the squares, in particular, were empty and they couldn’t find tenants for them because of past perceptions of the activities in the squares. The City’s Marketing and Promotions department developed a programme of temporary billboards explaining what was being done and what could be expected when construction activity had ceased and then ran a series of promotional events in the squares from parties to film festivals and even a regular organic market. As people saw the changes that were happening, investment and letting picked up.

In the meantime the City was determining possible projects that could be developed within the area. Some 26 were identified. On the dock edge are some magnificent shipping warehouses that were turned into retail and loft living – one of the old ship’s warehouses was converted by the City into its archives – every bit of Council paper finds its way there for cataloguing and storage and slowly being electronically converted. Not only the Council but citizens are able to source all documentation. In a situation like ours, where 5 or 10 year Council periods are the norm, and new people constantly take over new responsibilities, it should be mandatory for them to first search what has been done previously instead on constantly wasting tax-payers money by recreating the wheel. But you can’t do that if you don’t have a reliable source. From what I’ve experienced over the last fifteen years, a proper archives where all documents and results of research and project information can be properly stored and indexed, would save enormous amounts of money as well as providing a reliable source of city history.

Back to Het Schipperskwartier - new street paving, public squares, lighting, greening, public art, etc. have turned the macro area into a really pleasant place to work and stay and has drawn a great deal of new investment. In fact you can stroll through the area and never know that at its centre is a burgeoning sex trade! The redevelopment included reusing old buildings, the Stad’s Magazyn is now a community centre which offers all types of regular activities and is strongly supported by the community and used extensively, another building has been turned into a sex-workers health centre, a new police station (the police have uniformed and plain-clothed policemen in the precinct, but particularly in the sex workers area, 24/7), new shops and living quarters. New Policy regarding Prostitution and Window Prostitution has been developed which strictly controls minimum standards of buildings, health requirements, etc and these are annually inspected for compliance or you lose your licence!

The project has been tackled slowly and deliberately over a ten year period so that adequate involvement of the local community, including the prostitutes, could take place – the results speak for themselves and the project recently was the Laureate Winner of the newly established Flemish Spatial Planning Academy for being an “example of a perfect match between social and sustainable redevelopment.“

Well, that’s my story for being in “Het Schipperskwartier – the seductive Part of Antwerp”, and I’m sticking to it! Ciao, neil