Amsterdam Red Light District Live Cam

The Oudezijds Voorburgwal runs through De Wallen, the oldest quarter of Amsterdam and the one known abroad as the red light district. The camera looks down on the canal, the bridge and the boats going under it.

This is where the city started. The Oude Kerk a street away was consecrated in 1306 and is the oldest building in Amsterdam; the houses along the water stand on wooden piles driven into peat, which is why so many of them lean.

Sex work has been legal and licensed in the Netherlands since 2000, and the windows here are regulated premises with rents and inspections. The city has spent years buying them out and moving the trade elsewhere, and the quarter is quieter than it was.