The Red Light District of Amsterdam

It's one of the most well known adult related areas in the world. It's The Red Light District of Amsterdam. This place is explained at its best as an adult playground where people can do whatever they can't do when they're in their own country. Besides smoking weed in one of the many coffeeshops in Amsterdam, taking some shrooms or other so called "Designer Drugs", you can also visit a prostitute legally in the red light district, also known by the Dutch as "De Wallen".

In our previous article we already discussed the possibility of checking out the girls working as prostitute through web-cams in De Wallen. Unfortunately we discovered that there are no public web-cams available for viewing but, we did discover a website called CamsterDam which enables you to experience the Red Light District from your home. 

We can however (as promised) talk a bit more about this famous area in Amsterdam. The red light district in Amsterdam is perhaps one of the oldest places in the world where prostitution was and still is legalized by the Dutch government.

History of The Red Light District

Old Fashioned Prostitution in Amsterdam's Red Light District

In the early years of the 13th century De Wallen were mostly occupied by foster homes and monasteries. This remained till the later years of the 15th century, when so called "window-prostitution" started to flourish. After this started to occur, the business only grew. In the 1930's it was becoming such a big thing that many girls even started to offer themselves on the streets, without having any window to show their bodies in. This became an uncontrolled situation, and the government forbid girls to walk around the area luring people into their services. Ever since the prostitution in Holland was and still is legalized, if done properly by the girls. This means that they have to offer their services from a window, and provide them in the behind located rooms. The girls also need to pay their taxes like every other Dutch person does. If those rules are obeyed, there are no problems and a girl can work as a prostitute in Amsterdam.

The fall of De Wallen

Since 2010 the Dutch government noticed that a lot of criminal activities were taking place in and around the red light district. Therefor "Project 1012" was set up, which is called after the postal code of the area. The intention of Project 1012 is to close down many windows, thinking this will help girls forced in prostitution. Besides closing down windows, also shops with criminal related activities were and still are being closed down to regain some control over the area. Many foreign sources talk about the fact that the red light district will disappear completely, but this is not true. As said, the intention of Project 1012 is regaining some control, not to forbid prostitution entirely.

Future of Amsterdam's Red Light District

As we said, it's not the intention of the Dutch government to forbid prostitution or completely close down the red light area in the heart of the center. They realize very well what a great loss this will be regarding tourism in Holland. Several resources show us that roughly 65% of all tourists visiting Amsterdam for recreational purposes, want to visit the red light district. This even includes the females who were questioned, they are burning to take a peek at their gender providing their bodies to the public, imagine how the males think about it. Taking those facts, makes it very obvious that a money-hungry government like the Dutch is, will never - ever close down the red light district.