Background Amsterdam north of the IJ originally consisted of the Volewijck peninsula, which the city was given control over in 1393 (right of craftsmanship; Dutch:
recht van ambachtsheerlijkheid). Until 1795, Amsterdam-Noord was used as a gallows field, where the corpses of convicts were hung after the execution as a frightening example. In 1660, the digging of the Buikslotertrekvaart (literal translation: Buiksloter waterway) began just to the east of the Galgenveld, from the IJ north through Volewijck to
Buiksloot,
Broek in Waterland,
Monnickendam,
Edam and
Hoorn. In order to complete this project securely, several areas of Amsterdam-Noord were surrounded by dams from 1662 onwards. To finance those works, a toll house was built, to which a small outlet was connected at the end of the 18th century. The area that now forms Amsterdam-Noord has been intersected by the
Noordhollandsch Kanaal since its competition in 1824, which on the south side via the Willemssluizen is connected to the IJ. The canal flows under the
A10 motorway coming from
Den Helder, and then goes through the Noorderpark (east of
Buiksloot and west of
Buikslotermeer) and
Overhoeks. It was not until the 19th century that this area was urbanised; before construction began, the filling up of marshes with port sludge was necessary. That is how the Buiksloterham (1832–1851) and Nieuwendammerham (1879) came into existence.
Industrial period After the opening of the
North Sea Canal in 1876, the
port of Amsterdam became accessible to steamers. The municipality of Amsterdam voted to begin converting northern rural areas into industry fields, a policy which was started by the establishment of the
Stoomvaartmaatschappij Nederland,
Koninklijke Nederlandse Stoomboot-Maatschappij (KNSM) and others. The Amsterdam Drydock Company, founded on their initiative, built a ship repair yard on the north bank, and the
Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij (NDSM) established a new shipyard. In 1900, the
municipal council decided to move the
sulfuric acid plant of Ketjen, which caused a great deal of disruption in Overtoom (
Amsterdam-Zuid), to a new facility in Amsterdam-Noord. In 1908, the Kromhout shipbuilding factory also moved north of the IJ. In 1910, descendants of the
Zaanstad manufacturing families Duijvis and Verkade founded the Drakafabriek for low-voltage cables, necessary for the electrification of the Netherlands. Many ferry services were needed to serve the staff of these companies on a daily basis, and a need arose for housing over the IJ. Due to a border change in 1877, Amsterdam's control was extended over the northern IJ bank to the Waterlandse Zeedijk. In 1900, Johan van Hasselt, the new director of the municipal Public Works Department, made a design for the development of Amsterdam-Noord. There was a lot of room for living and working in this design. It provided space for heavy industry and port-related activity. The construction of a new main canal even required clearing the way for the construction of a bridge over the IJ connecting the area with the inner city. Van Hasselt was not aware of modern insights in public housing, and this led to various conflicts with the management of the municipal Building and Housing Service. They wanted to break with existing practices in Amsterdam, such as high-rise buildings of four or five storeys to accommodate workers. The plan was considerably changed for residential construction in Amsterdam-Noord, but the area already attracted many companies. Those policies and Amsterdam-Noord's geographical situation attracted
Anthony Fokker to establish his aircraft factory after the
First World War. In the Nieuwendammerham, the way had already been cleared during this period for the construction of the Vogelbuurt by housing associations. A few years later, the new Municipal Housing Service in Amsterdam took over the construction of the neighbourhood in the Buiksloterham.
Second World War on the residential areas of Amsterdam-Noord in 1943. In the
Second World War the industry fields in Amsterdam-Noord were the target of the
air bombings by the Allied Forces. The
Fokker factories were the 17 July 1943 bombings' goal, but the bombs of the
United States Army Air Forces fell on the surrounding residential areas, causing 158 deaths and 119 seriously injured as a result. The British’
Royal Air Force and
Free French Air Forces both did another attempt to bomb the factory on 25 and 28 July, resulting in the death of 200 citizens in total by the three raids. Only the British Forces managed to bomb the targeted airplane factory, all other bombs fell on residential areas in Amsterdam-Noord. This is the heaviest air bombardment that ever hit Amsterdam. 106 houses were destroyed, 206 houses heavily damaged and 676 houses suffered glass and roof damage. Every year a memorial ceremony takes place on 17 July at De Nieuwe Noorder cemetery.
Recent years In December 1981, Amsterdam-Noord and
Osdorp became the first two districts of the municipality of Amsterdam to have their own elected district council and executive board. In April 2012, the
EYE Film Institute Netherlands was officially transferred from the Vondelparkpaviljoen,
Vondelpark to
Overhoeks, Amsterdam-Noord following an inauguration by Queen Beatrix. This made the borough more culturally attractive, since the museum's new location is only two minutes away from the Centrum borough by ferry. ==Geography==