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Wolwevershaven, DordrechtMelaveh

A merchant's house of 1731, kept as a shell and relined

Six metres and twenty across the front, four floors behind it, and a souterrain that was the wool store when the harbour outside was still working.

The hall stair as it turns at the first landing
The hall stair, turning at the first landing. Nothing of the staircase is new except the treads.
1731Built for a timber merchant
8Rooms, over four floors
3Tables in the souterrain

What was taken out, and what was not allowed to be

The house was a warehouse, then flats, then empty for nine years. In 2016 everything that had been added to it since 1900 came out.

The frame is oak, the floors are pine on oak joists, and the front is brick with a sandstone band at first-floor level. The gable is a neck gable, rebuilt in 1884 after a fire two doors along, which is why it does not match its neighbours and why nobody has ever tried to make it.

What came out: eight partition walls, two bathrooms stacked in the stairwell, a lift shaft that had been started and abandoned, and the suspended ceilings that had been put in when the floors were offices. What was not allowed out: the stair, the front, the beams, and the souterrain vault, which is listed and would not have come out anyway.

The house in detail

Eight rooms, and no two of them the same shape

A house this narrow does not produce repeatable rooms. Each floor has its own ceiling height and its own window line.

Section through the house, souterrain to attic Five levels behind one front. The souterrain is half below the quay, with the gaming room in its front half. Above it the hall and the desk, then three floors of rooms, then the attic with its hoist beam. hoist beam Attic Third floor, two rooms Second floor, three rooms First floor, two rooms Hall, desk and the back room Souterrain: the gaming room quay level six steps down, twenty-five paces, all of it inside
Section through the house. The gaming room occupies the front half of the souterrain.

The first floor, the old beletage, has the tallest windows and two rooms. The second has three, the third has two under lower ceilings, and the attic is not let: it holds the hoist beam, the water tank and a great deal of nothing.

Floor by floor

The casino room is the souterrain, under the front of the house

Not a neighbour, not another address, and nobody steps outside to reach it.

The casino floor holds three tables and a counter, and it opens on four evenings a week. Until about 1860 this was the wool store: the harbour outside took the bales off the barges, a hatch in the quay wall dropped them in, and the merchant's clerk counted them at a desk in the corner. The hatch is bricked up and visible, and the brick is a different colour, which is the sort of thing that cannot be faked.

From the desk in the hall you walk behind it, take the stair, and go down six steps: twenty-five paces, none of them outdoors. One of the staff holds that door through every hour it is open, and the rule at it is 18 with photographic proof, on every visit.

What the souterrain is like
Plan of the souterrain and the hall above it The street door opens on the hall, with the desk on the left. The stair to the souterrain is behind the desk. Below, the front half of the souterrain is the gaming room and the back half is the cellar and the plant. Hall level Street door Desk Stair down Souterrain Gaming room three tables, one counter Cellar and plant desk to door, without leaving the house
The hall above, the souterrain beside it, and the route between the two.

The quay outside has not been a working harbour since 1963

It is now where people keep old boats, which is quieter and better looking.

The Grote Kerk is six minutes east on foot. The Merwede is directly south across the water, and it is the busiest inland shipping junction in Europe, which you notice at night.

The quay and the town

All gaming in this house happens in one room of it and nowhere else. The Melaveh Room runs nothing online, opens no account for anyone and settles no payment through this website.