100 years of De Bijenkorf The Hague (1926)
In 1926, de Bijenkorf The Hague opened its doors. The building, in the style of the Amsterdam School, was dubbed 'the palace of joie de vivre' by architect Piet Kramer. Now, one century later, our leading department store remains an unmistakable symbol of style and a reflection of the city's rich history. It is a special anniversary year; kick off the next 100 years with us. Additionally, the City Café is fully decorated in a special 100 Years of The Hague design, and Museum de Bijenkorf The Hague is temporarily opening in the stairwell, where visitors can discover more about the department store's rich history.
De Bijenkorf general
De Bijenkorf is a luxury department store chain with seven branches in the Netherlands in 2026. In the past, there were eight more branches. Department store De Bijenkorf was founded in 1870 by Simon Philip Goudsmit (1845-1889). He started on the Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam with a small business selling yarn and ribbon. After his death, his widow and a nephew expanded the business. The De Bijenkorf entrepreneurs also devised the HEMA concept. The company was founded in 1870 and grew from a small haberdashery shop in Amsterdam into a nationwide department store chain. De Bijenkorf primarily sells clothing, fashion accessories, cosmetics, and perfume; in the larger department stores, also furniture and home accessories, sports and travel items, and kitchenware. The department stores also feature a pastry department and one or more catering establishments. Since 2022, the company has been owned by the Thai Central Group and the Austrian Signa.
De Bijenkorf in The Hague
In 1926, the branch in The Hague was opened, for which a building site on Grote Marktstraat had been purchased in 1923. Also in 1926, the founders established HEMA, which was intended for the financially less fortunate. This company was initially located on Kalverstraat in Amsterdam. HEMA prospered in its first years, partly because it could draw on the knowledge of the Bijenkorf buyers. In 1930, Bijenkorf became a member of the International Department Store Association (of which Le Printemps in Paris and Harrods in London were members, among others).
De Bijenkorf in The Hague is located in a building on Wagenstraat and Grote Marktstraat, designed by the architect Piet Kramer. It is one of the last buildings featuring all the stylistic characteristics of the Amsterdam School, constructed with a reinforced concrete frame and sculptural brick forms.
The staircase, made of carved tropical wood with Art Deco forms, is equipped with stained glass windows for which Pieter Hofman, among others, designed the structure, and which features sculptures by Hildo Krop and John Rädecker, among others. It also houses the first escalator in the Netherlands. The building was completed in 1926 and renovated in 1962 and 1997. Many of the 1962 renovations, which were considered modern and indispensable at the time, were reversed during the major renovation in the 90s. For example, the atrium has been restored in a more contemporary form (albeit without a void). Large department stores had their own post office as a service for the shopping public. One could also send registered mail (R-) there. See the two different R-registration slips from the The Hague branch.
Letters en logo’s
With everything that has been developed in design at de Bijenkorf over 150 years, the gift wrapping paper deserves Maurits Escher It should not go unmentioned. Escher, specializing in labyrinthine woodcuts that can be 'read' in multiple directions, designed gift wrap for De Bijenkorf in 1933. With letters designed by himself. He did this very artfully, using, among other things, his characteristic puzzle-solving with black letters on white backgrounds and vice versa. However, he failed in one thing—his trademark, no less: creating confusion. For no matter how you look at it, a purchase wrapped in that paper designed by him remains unmistakably a gift from De Bijenkorf.
In the period 1950–1960, the logo changed from a complete small Beehive depicted in thin lines to a vertical line of indeterminate length containing the stylized half-basket, based on a design by the Swiss designer Josef Müller-Brockmann. This logo was used for the first time in the autumn of 1953. For advertisements, posters, and correspondence, it was used in two forms: the elongated half-basket and a square black area with the half-basket in white. These two versions would remain in use through 1959. The logo was later further developed by Total Design into the iconic hexagon that De Bijenkorf still uses today.
Exhibition at De Bijenkorf (1943)
Exhibition at De Bijenkorf (1943): A postcard issued by NV Magazijn “Bijenkorf” depicts the De Bijenkorf department store in Amsterdam. On the address side, which is unwritten, a red 2 cent “flying dove” stamp is cancelled with a short bar stamp AMSTERDAM-BIJENKORF 1943 / 11.III.2N. On both the image and address sides, there is a purple round stamp with the text:Exhibition collecting postcards and stamps. How and why? March 1943 in De Bijenkorf, Damrak, Amsterdam.” A stamp with the signature NA Zilver also appears on both sides. The exhibition remained open until March 27, 1943.
In 1947, another PTT Exhibition was held at De Bijenkorf in The Hague. See the special cancellations below.
De Bijenkorf in Amsterdam
De Bijenkorf in Amsterdam is situated on Dam Square, Damrak, Beursplein, and Warmoesstraat. The design is by architects J.A. van Straaten and B.A. Lubbers; construction took place between 1912 and 1915. The building, a national monument since 2001, was constructed in a historicizing style, referencing, among other things, the Royal Palace on Dam Square diagonally opposite.
At over 20.000 m², the Amsterdam Bijenkorf is the department store chain's largest and most luxurious branch. The fifth floor opened in 2008, featuring the Bijenkorf Kitchen restaurant, among other things. In 2016, the 4300 m² ground floor reopened, having been renovated and redesigned according to the store-in-store concept. This involved enlarging the entrances, making the display windows more transparent, and expanding the accessories department with various brand shops including Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Gucci, Céline, Prada, and Michael Kors. Later that year, the men's (1st floor) and women's (2nd and 3rd floors) departments were also redesigned following the same principle.[16] In 2017, opening hours were extended, meaning the store is open daily until 21 p.m.
De Bijenkorf in Rotterdam
The previous building of the Rotterdam Bijenkorf opened in 1930 and stood at the former Van Hogendorpplein and Schiedamsesingel, on the site of the current Churchillplein, near the Schielandshuis. It was designed by architect Willem Dudok. Groundwork began in 1929, and the first pile was driven on June 13 of that year. The opening on October 16, 1930, was an event attended by 70.000 people. Before the war, Dudok's Bijenkorf was the first building in Rotterdam to feature escalators and an electric floor mat for automatically cleaning shoe soles. During the bombing of May 14, 1940, the building was two-thirds destroyed.
The current building dates from 1956 and is a symbol of the reconstruction of the city of Rotterdam. It was erected a little further down the Coolsingel and was designed by the Hungarian-American architect Marcel Breuer (1902–1981), in collaboration with the Dutch architect Abraham Elzas (1907-1995), who was the permanent architect for the Bijenkorf group at the time.
Thanks to Peter Janssen of www.frankeerstempel.nl for the stamps in this blog.
<strong> More info: </strong>
The Beehive: https://www.debijenkorf.nl/
Cultural Heritage De Bijenkorf:
https://www.cultureelerfgoeddebijenkorf.nl/150-jaar-intro-magazine/
I will certainly pay a visit to this architectural jewel myself and visit the exhibition.
Cherished childhood memories are the visits to the Bijenkorf with my grandmother. They invariably ended in the restaurant that was located on the top floor at the time. It was always a croquette sandwich.
De Bijenkorf, beautiful building, lovely products for the full wallet. Always fighting against decline but always rising like a phoenix. Still miss the Three Crazy Days, also for the common people.