Two Brits have taken a trip around Amsterdam‘s most notorious neighbourhood to see if it really deserves its “no-go zone” reputation.
Travel YouTuber Wendall visited the Dutch capital after being invited by Lewis, an English viewer who now lives there, with the aim of taking a look around Bijlmermeer for a video. The neighbourhood, known locally as the Bijlmer, suffered with high crime rates in the 1980s and 1990s, and has a “notorious reputation for being the worst area” according to Lewis.
Wendall spoke with some locals in the centre of Amsterdam before venturing into the Bijlmer. One described it as “ugly” with a lot of “high rises” that “really went down the drain” after it was first constructed in the late 1960s. She warned: “Just be careful with the parking garages, if you go in and it’s dark.”
Yet that wasn’t the impression Wendall got when he first entered. He described it as “quite picturesque”, adding: “If this was in Birmingham, near to where I’m from originally, there’d be rubbish everywhere, shopping trolleys in these canals upside down, there’d be groups of youths hanging around.”
However, after venturing further in and speaking to a couple of locals who played down the Bijlmer’s “dangerous” rep, he did come across an area he thought was more “ramshackle”. He said: “[There’s] a lot more litter around. The workmen there said that there are some issues, so maybe we are uncovering that there is still a slight edge in this part of the Bijlmer.”
Lewis told him about “bike gangs” in the area, and the pair encountered some young children who warned it was “not a good hood around here”. When asked what problems there were, one of the youngsters said: “Shootings, stabbings, kidnappers.” But he added it wasn’t dangerous for Wendall to walk around, suggesting the issues were just between gangs.
And despite Wendall eventually coming across a trolley in a canal, of which he said “nothing is more British”, most of the locals suggested the area’s reputation was blown out of proportion. Another group of youngsters told him: “It’s not so dangerous here. Certain places are more dangerous than other places. Because we don’t mess with the people that are dangerous.”
Another local, who had recently moved to the area, said: “It’s beautiful. People are very welcoming. The vibes are good. When the weather is beautiful, you have all kinds of people outside […] It’s honestly not that bad at all.”
Wendall and Lewis then went to the centre of the Bijlmer, and Wendall was taken aback. “If this is the town centre of the roughest area in Amsterdam, or the Netherlands, this is so clean, so nice,” he said. “If I walk around Luton or Slough, Britain is in a far worse state when it comes to town centres, there’d be street drinkers everywhere – I don’t see any street drinking [here]!”
He concluded his video by saying: “I think we’ve put the story to bed. Parts of the Netherlands that are considered to be the roughest areas, they’re not dangerous areas at all compared to Britain.”