Bureau Raampoort

Bureau Raampoort is a former police station beside the Bullebaksluis in Amsterdam, facing the Singelgracht canal. Willem Springer designed the three-storey building in 1888, combining neoclassical details with medieval towers and battlements. Red brick façades, dark brick bands, and a stone base give the rectangular structure a solid appearance. An octagonal tower rises above the centre, finished with a pointed roof and weather vane.

The site once held the Raampoort, a seventeenth-century gate serving workers beyond Amsterdam’s walls. After the gate disappeared in 1844, the police station replaced it and opened in 1888. Police officers shared the building with a neighbourhood secretary until 1898, when the entire property became a station. Three houses on Marnixstraat joined it in 1929, while police use continued until 2014. Since 2017, Japanese furniture and design company Time & Style has used the building as a showroom.

A round-arched entrance, stone pediment, and Amsterdam coat of arms reward a close look from the street. The rear sits one storey below street level, supported by foundations in the canal water. Across Bloemgracht, another tower mirrors the main tower and strengthens the architectural connection. The small square contains New Naatje, a bronze sculpture created for Amsterdam’s seven-hundredth anniversary. Dutch detective novels and television have also made these surroundings familiar to fictional investigators.