There is absolutely no denial from me that I love a door photo. They’re just canny to look at, and I think it’s nice when people make an effort with a fancy front door. London has pastel colours and matching or in some cases clashing walls, Paris has grand arched entranceways, Cologne even has doorways that match the colour of their Vespas parked outside. Amsterdam doesn’t quite do it’s doorways with colour, more with steps, and a lot of black wrought iron.

For a nice lighthearted Monday morning post, here’s some of my favourite doorways of Amsterdam.

One thing you’re bound to see outside every Amsterdam doorway is a bike, if not a full stack of them, chained up to the iron. That might be why theres so much of it actually, given how valuable their bikes are to them and the need to chain them up everywhere.

The wealthiest of mansions have grand sweeping stairs out the front.

Many of them have multiple front doors, if they’re not turned into basement flats, from the days when houses were built with as many floors as possible piled high and narrowly on top of each other.

There are of course, some residential places that try to spruce up the black coloured doors and buildings with plants and shrubs.

This one could even be mistaken for a house in Notting Hill.

In the Golden Age of Amsterdam, often buildings were built in pairs by the same architect. These buildings would have twin doors that look like they lead into the one place. They’re split, as are the buildings into two.

The grand mansions around the canal belts have enormous doors, in contrast to the tiny twinned doors. They were built to show off the wealth of those who lived their, and made to look big next to the long narrow windows,

The old canal warehouses have doorways that match the window shutters, and make for some of the prettiest doorway and window combinations in the city.

As does this one, part of the old city gate.

This is the doorway to the narrowest building in Amsterdam, and the doorway next to it has the city coat of arms above it showing XXX. Just a tip, don’t go googling ‘Amsterdam XXX’ to get more info on it, you’ll get some nasty search results!

And this is perhaps the most famous doorway in Amsterdam, belonging to Anne Frank’s house and her fathers shop.

This hidden doorway leads to the Begijnhof, an inner courtyard in the city built for a religious sisterhood.

And inside the doorways lead off to their private dwellings where women still live and worship today.

And a couple more…

Some other posts you might like:

Colourful houses of Notting Hill

Doortraits from around the world

Itinerary: How to spend 3 days in Amsterdam

Exploring the beautiful Museum Quarter of Amsterdam

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Doortraits of Amsterdam

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