Boulangerie: a shop where you buy bread!

Patisserie: a shop where you buy cakes!

Condomerie: a shop where you buy condoms!

Welcome to Amsterdam’s Red Light district!

The area is a network of alleys containing some three hundred small, one-room shop-fronts, rented by female prostitutes who offer their services from behind a window or glass door which is, typically, illuminated by red lights (or blue lights which indicate that the prostitute is a transvestite). The area also offers sex shops, theatres, peep shows, museums – one dedicated to sex, one to prostitution and one to erotism – plus a number of “coffee shops” that sell cannabis.

Amsterdam prides itself on its liberal and tolerant attitude, embracing the fact that people may be into prostitution, soft drugs and pornography – and that it is only human. So instead of criminalizing everything, they enjoy the honesty of it all, or so they say!

Prostitutes in the Netherlands are also taxpayers. As a legal profession, the government ensures that all prostitutes are able to access medical care and work in better conditions by regulating and monitoring working practices and standards. Help is also at hand in the district itself thanks to the prostitution information centre and, contrary to popular belief, the Red Light district is one of the safest areas in Amsterdam.

Top Left: a “condomerie”, Miss Vivienne makes her blogging debut, a view of the Red Light district and a “Sex Palace”. It is strictly forbidden to take pictures or film women behind their windows. 

In the middle of the Red Light district is a magnificent 14th century building known as the Old Church.