Laundry & ironing service in Honselersdijk

Between 1621 and 1631 Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik built a new palace in Honselersdijk — Paleis Honselaarsdijk — on the spot where a medieval castle of the Lords of Naaldwijk had stood. The new building, in Dutch classicist style, was modest outside and spacious inside. The architect was probably Jacob van Campen, otherwise Pieter Post. The engraving above, from a seventeenth-century series, shows the palace in full bloom: a sleek facade, symmetrical French-style gardens, orchards all around.

Honselaarsdijk was more than a country house. It was the summer residence of the stadtholder family, and — between 1689 and 1702, when William III was simultaneously King of England — temporarily one of the most important court locations in Europe. Diplomats, painters and horticulturists worked and stayed there. The gardens were a nursery for new fruit and vegetable varieties; the surrounding region benefited from this knowledge centre. The rise of Westland horticulture cannot be separated from this palace.

After the childless death of William III in 1702 the palace passed to the King of Prussia. Decline began. In 1795 the French took the building; it became successively a prison, military hospital and artillery and engineering school. By 1815 it was in such bad condition that the palace was demolished. A long Honselaarsdijk legacy was lost — but the name lives on in that of the surrounding village.

Honselersdijk today is a compact horticultural village, with new neighbourhoods and many greenhouses. Of the palace only part of the inner courtyard (the Nederhof) remains. Our driver runs a set pickup day through Honselersdijk — Dijkstraat, Laan van de Eland, Gantellaan. Your bag goes along, and comes back in the evening clean and ironed with the same driver. A piece of rhythm that lasts, even when much has disappeared in seven centuries — the palace, the grape greenhouse, the household.