The eleventh and last place to visit that day was
Leidschendam. I took the tram from Nootdorp and got out at Leidsenhage shopping
centre. I looked for the Primera, coincidentally owned by the same man that had
the Primera in Schiedam that I visited that morning. I was quite a search
because the whole shopping mall was in renovation and turned into 'The Mall of
the Netherlands", a process that took a few years.
Leidschendam is a town and former municipality in the
province of South Holland. Along with Voorburg and Stompwijk, it is part of the
municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg.
The town's name has been in use for centuries and
refers to the lock in the Vliet, near the historic city of Leiden. The
settlement on the Northern side of the lock was known as 'Veur', until the
formation of the municipality of Leidschendam in 1938. This recent date belies
the long history of human habitation in this area, which predates the Roman
occupation two thousand years ago.
Important driver for the development of the area was
the Vliet canal, ferrying people and goods through Holland in the Middle Ages,
and even in Roman times. As elsewhere in Holland, windmills were constructed to
power local industry, such as a wheat grinding mill in 1594 and wood processing
mills in 1643 and 1739. Veur became an independent municipality in the time of
the short-lived Batavian Republic.
The Southern side of the Vliet was settled at a later
date due to presence of extensive swamps. These were drained around 1200 by the
Counts of Holland, enabling the settlements of Stompwijk and Wilsveen to be
established. Subsequently, the peat industry flourished, and about twenty
windmills were constructed for water management. In 1811, Stompwijk and Veur
were combined to form Leidschendam, but this was reversed only six years later,
although one mayor continued to serve both villages.
Starting in the closing years of the 19th century, the
area started to change rapidly due to combined forces of the agricultural
crisis, improved transportation in the area, and regional effects of the first
and second World Wars. A growing number of government and industrial activities
and the associated housing demand transformed Veur from a rural into a suburban
community. This led to a municipal reorganization and the formation of
Leidschendam, in 1938. Both Leidschendam and Voorburg are now part of the
agglomeration of the city of The Hague and are often regarded as its suburbs.
Stompwijk is still a rural village, located a few miles Northeast of
Leidschendam. All three were combined into the municipality of
Leidschendam-Voorburg in 2002 as an answer to a series of small annexations
from surrounding municipalities made by The Hague.
City/town: Leidschendam
Municipality: Leidschendam-Voorburg
Area: 37,80
km² (including Stompwijk) (Leidschendam-Voorburg 35,62 km²)
Population: 33.565
(2018) (Leidschendam-Voorburg 75.405, 1 January 2019)
Parcel
point
Primera
Leidsenhage
Liguster
45
2262
AC LEIDSCHENDAM
(a temporary address from 30 May 2017, original
address was Liguster 81)
Date sent: 7 July 2017
Date postmark: 7 July 2017
Date received: 8 July 2017
Number of days: 1
Envelope
in collection: 222
