Image of violence

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Leiden was an industrial city. Many people worked in the city's factories and did so in extremely poor conditions. Because the houses were generally small, life mostly took place in the streets. This was also the case in the Hakbijlenbuurt. Most of this neighborhood depended on the Nieuwenhuizen cannery, and in the summer women and children peeled and chopped their beans outside every day. The neighborhood looked shabby, causing the somewhat wealthier parts of Leiden (and even of the Transvaal neighborhood) to look upon the neighborhood with distaste.

As poverty grew, so did this distaste. Very soon, outsiders no longer dared to walk past the neighborhood because of the residents’ display of aggressive behavior. To what extent this actually happened is difficult to say. Interviews with local residents did reveal that the prejudice caused the residents of this neighborhood to become very close to each other, and at the same time they began to shun the outside world. 'We were not from the neighborhood, so we were the enemy somehow.' an older resident from further down the Morsweg told me regarding the atmosphere of the Hakbijlenbuurt in the 1950s and '60s.

It was the gap between the neighborhood and the rest of Leiden that probably resulted in this particular nickname. People probably wanted to convey the idea that the neighborhood was different from the rest and emphasized this with the nickname. It is unclear whether the nickname was coined within the neighborhood or outside it. But, why "Hakbijlenbuurt"? Let's take a look at some theories, starting with those that reflect the idea of violence in the neighborhood.