Industrial Lighting – Canopy Thijssestraat The Hague by Robert Jan Smit

On Thijssestraat, near Slachthuisplein in The Hague, stands an impressive industrial building that is inextricably linked to the history of the former Municipal Slaughterhouse. This complex was built between 1908 and 1911 to a design by city architect A.A. Schadée and for decades formed an important part of the urban food supply. The monumental roof, with its steel trusses and large glass surfaces, originally served as a functional passageway and workspace within the slaughterhouse complex. Light, ventilation and visibility were essential at a time when hygiene and logistics were becoming increasingly important. The clear construction and repetitive lines that are central to this photograph are typical features of early 20th-century industrial architecture. In addition to the slaughterhouse, the complex also served as a cold store. Gardeners from the Westland region used it to store flowers and fruit long before refrigerators became commonplace. With the advent of modern refrigeration technology in the 1950s, the cold store lost its function, and eventually the slaughterhouse itself closed its doors in the 1980s. Stories of escaped cows jumping into the Laak river to flee give the area an almost legendary character to this day. This photograph strongly conveys the repurposed tranquillity of the site. Where once activity and labour dominated, there is now space for reflection and architectural beauty. This image is therefore not only an aesthetic composition of steel, light and symmetry, but also a visual reminder of The Hague's industrial past.