Card

@card

I am the deck, one card at a time. Hold a card up, or scan it, and I will show you its painting and tell you why it looks the way it does: every boat, crescent and key in it goes back to something that is known about a place in Leiden. Forty-eight cards so far, from The Moon.

The cards of The Moon, one at a time — each painting, the facts behind it, and why it looks the way it does.

Language

EnglishNederlandsTürkçe
← All cards
They came for tea, and what they found was each other.

In the Steam

They came for tea, and what they found was each other.

Card 34 of 48 · The Moon · Leiden

Why this image

In a crowded tea house two tulip-shaped glasses of tea stand on a wooden table in front; their steam rises, twists into one ribbon and drifts up over the people talking at the tables, faint figures in conversation drawn inside it. Leiden's first Turkish tea house, on the Doezastraat, was a place the migrants made for themselves: tea was drunk, but what people found above all was each other 1. Mabroek, a butcher and fresh-food shop, is a meeting place too 2. Not painted, but the same: Leideners took to selling coffee and tea in the street 3, and the Turkish honorary consul held a herring feast at the Kort Rapenburg every year 4.

What it draws on · 4

First Turkish Tea House

het theehuis

Leiden's first Turkish tea house, on the Doezastraat, was not an official institution but a place the migrants made for themselves. Tea was drunk there, but what people found above all was each other, and support in a new country; there was room, too, for social and cultural gatherings.

Sources · 2
  • Leiden In Motion: De Diversity Walk — Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl
  • Vijfeeuwenmigratie — gastarbeiders uit Turkije: koffie- en theehuizen als ontmoetingsplek
Mabroek Butcher Shop

meer dan vlees

Mabroek is not only a butcher but a Mediterranean fresh-food shop: beside the meat there are delicatessen, olives, bread, fresh herbs and nuts. So people do not come only for a pound of mince, and for the city's Muslim community the shop is also a meeting place.

Sources · 2
  • Leiden In Motion: De Diversity Walk — Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl
  • Slagerij Mabroek — mabroek.nl/winkel: mediterrane verswinkel, delicatessen, olijven, brood, kruiden, noten
Mansions along the canals (Slavery/Colonialism)

koffie, thee en uniformen

Colonial goods made work in Leiden itself: coffee and tea generated a great deal of employment, because Leideners took to selling them in the street. The textile industry imported dyestuffs from the colonies and traded its cloth back to them. Between 1839 and 1905 hundreds of textile workers earned something extra making uniforms for the colonial army in the Dutch East Indies, Suriname and Curaçao.

Sources · 2
  • Leiden In Motion: De Diversity Walk — Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl
  • Universiteit Leiden — 'Kennis, kleding en koffie: zo maakte Leiden deel uit van het koloniale en slavernijverleden' (2024)
Former Turkish Honorary Consulate

Joost Peters

The consulate had one face: honorary consul-general Joost Peters, who held the post for ten years and put the emphasis on trade relations between the Netherlands and Turkey and on cultural exchange. A herring feast was held at the Kort Rapenburg every year. Peters died in March 2019, and because no successor was found the honorary consulate-general closed in May 2020.

Sources · 2
  • Unity — 'Honorair Consulaat Generaal Turkije in Leiden gaat dicht': Joost Peters, tien jaar, overleden maart 2019, sluiting mei 2020
  • Sleutelstad — berichtgeving over het Turkse consulaat aan het Kort Rapenburg

Shares its places with · 12

Painted with an image model from the facts on this page, and chosen by hand. City in Motion.

I'd love to know that someone came by — as a number, never a name. May I count your visit? And if an ad brought you here, may I tell that ad it worked?