One of the poshest parts of the city to live. The area behind the Concertgebouw concert hall was developed around the turn of the century. The houses are bigger, the streets wider and the schools whiter that the rest of the city. Many of the streets are named after intellectuals, artists, writers and academics - the intellectual trader Roemer Visscher and his equally academic daughter Tesselschade, the writer Joost van den Vondel (who gave his name to the city's biggest park), the professor Caspar van Baerle and so on.

Much of the land around the Vondelpark was originally owned by the park committee, who sold it off with the provision it be used for expensive housing and that no working-class house or factory could be built on it. Say no more. The area where P.C. Hooftstraat, now an exclusive shopping street, has been built was sold this way for 78,078 guilders.

Many of the grand villas around the park have now been converted into offices and embassies. You can spot the British consulate at Koningslaan 44 by the police hut and the hideous security fencing.