Building 269

‘De Dood’ storeroom

Built in 1928, municipal monument

Past
This storeroom is the only building on the Hembrug site in the style of the Amsterdam School, which can be recognized by the tower and the predominance of horizontal lines. It is a three-storey building and the top floors had more windows. The storeroom was used to store shells, among other things.

The buildings on the Hembrug site were numbered. Originally, they were numbered in ascending order, but these days there is no discernible logic. When a building was demolished, the new building was given a new number. Even the employees were confused by the new building numbers, so many of the buildings were given nicknames. Although munitions were stored in the ‘De Dood’ (‘Death’) storeroom, its name was not an allusion to the hazardous working conditions. The supervisor who worked here was a Mr De Dood, and his staff were, by all accounts, scared to death of him. His office on the top floor is three steps higher than the rest of the shop floor, to further reinforce his authority.