Soho House Amsterdam occupies the Bungehuis, a 1930s grain merchant’s office on the Singel that spent forty years as a university faculty before it became a club. We are a private tour company based here in Amsterdam, and this is a good corner of the city to start from: the Spui and the Begijnhof are a few minutes away, the Nine Streets and the Jordaan are just across the canal, and almost every tour we run can begin at your door.
The Bungehuis was finished in June 1934 as the head office of Bunge, a trading house founded in Amsterdam in 1818 that dealt in colonial goods, timber and above all grain. The architect was A.D.N. van Gendt, and the director, Julius Carl Bunge, had firm views: natural materials throughout, and no sculptures or murals on the facade. The result is one of the cleanest pieces of 1930s architecture on the canals, all stone and rhythm and nothing to distract from either.
In 1971 the University of Amsterdam moved in, and two years later bought the building for its Faculty of Humanities. For four decades it was full of students, which made what happened next inevitable: when the university sold it to Soho House, students occupied the building in February 2015, and the protest spread to the Maagdenhuis on the Spui. The sale went ahead, and Soho House opened here in the autumn of 2018 with 79 rooms, a rooftop pool, Cecconi’s, a cinema and a Cowshed spa.
It is a good building to understand before you leave it, and a guide can do that in the ten minutes it takes to walk to the Spui.
Three minutes from the hotel is the Begijnhof, a medieval courtyard built for the Beguines, lay Catholic women who lived here in community without taking vows. The last of them died in 1971, and the almshouses are still lived in today. Number 34, Het Houten Huis, dates from 1528 and is the oldest wooden house in Amsterdam. The English Reformed Church in the middle has stained glass of the Pilgrim Fathers, who probably worshipped there before sailing for the New World.
Two practical notes most visitors get wrong. The old door on the Spui is no longer the visitors’ entrance; you go in from the Gedempte Begijnensloot on the east side. And it is private property where silence is asked for and groups of more than twelve are not permitted, which is exactly why it feels the way it does.
Your guide can string several of these together in a single walk. They appear on the Brews and T’Ales, Private Craft Beer Tour, and the Private Photo Tour Amsterdam passes close by.
Six more worth booking from the Bungehuis. The architecture tour starts with the building you are sleeping in, and City Highlights sets off from the Spui on foot. The Anne Frank House is a fifteen minute walk across the canal ring, the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh tours are a pleasant walk south, and Guide for a Day is there when you would rather keep the day open.
Private Anne Frank and Jewish History Walking TourFrom 515 euroView this tour
Private Architecture Tour AmsterdamFrom 400 euroView this tour
Amsterdam City Highlights Private TourFrom 400 euroView this tour
Private Rijksmuseum TourFrom 360 euroView this tour
Private Van Gogh Museum TourFrom 325 euroView this tour
Guide for a DayFrom 1,000 euroView this tourSee all our private tours from Amsterdam about Private Tours Amsterdam
For a day out of Amsterdam your guide and the car meet you near the house and bring you back to the Spuistraat afterwards. Zaanse Schans and its windmills, Keukenhof in tulip season, Delft and The Hague, Giethoorn, or the castles at Muiderslot and De Haar. The full list is on our private driving tours page.
The Spuistraat is narrow and busy with trams nearby, so we agree a precise pick-up spot and time and confirm it with you directly the evening before.
Plenty of our Soho House bookings come through advisors planning a client’s whole stay, and we make that easy: a single contact, a written plan the client can read before they fly, a guide who is early rather than on time, and a message to the guests themselves the evening before. The travel advisor page has our commission terms and a direct line.
Guests can equally ask the front desk to book for them. We handle it from there.
Yes. Walking tours start at the house, and for driving tours we agree a pick-up point a short walk away, because the Spuistraat is narrow. You will hear from us the evening before with the details.
The head office of the Bunge grain trading company, completed in 1934, and from 1971 the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Humanities. Soho House opened in 2018. Our private architecture tour can start with it.
Through the entrance on the Gedempte Begijnensloot, not the old door on the Spui. It is about three minutes from the hotel, silence is requested, and groups larger than twelve are not permitted.
Most of ours are. Brews and T’Ales is a craft beer tour through the brown cafes, and the food and photo tours are about how the city lives now rather than what it looked like in 1650.
Very likely. Besides English we have guides who speak German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. Mention your preference when you get in touch.
Later than most people expect. A few weeks ahead gives the best choice of guides, but next-day tours are routine and we can often manage the same day. The contact page or a phone call is quickest.
