Borneostraat 116, The Hague - Archipel district, is a beautiful stately district with mainly nineteenth century (19th) houses. The soon to open Star Galerie is situated at the corner first floor of Malakkastraat, where the street of Vredeskapel is built on 1880.
It is parallel to the Madoerastraat / Bankastraat with various stores, restaurants and lunchrooms and public transportation. The first floor is very suitable for business/store.
For those arriving in the Archipel from the direction of Scheveningen, the Bankastraat forms a majestic entry into the neighbourhood. It takes its name from the island of Bangka, north-east of South Sumatra, which marks the transition between the South China Sea and the Java Sea. In other words, it serves as a kind of gateway to Indonesia. The island became famous when Sukarno was interned there in 1948, during Indonesia's struggle for independence from Dutch colonial rule.
The (literal) high point of the Bankastraat (spelled without the 'g') used to be the Beau Séjour hotel, built in 1882. To avoid spoiling the view towards the city centre, the back of the hotel was taken as the building line for the houses further up. They were among the most expensive in The Hague and were always the preserve of a wealthy élite. In 1910, their rental value was as much as 1000 guilders a year....
Some people think that the Archipel used to be an all-Dutch neighbourhood and that expats are a new phenomenon, but in fact the Bankastraat has always been extremely international. In 1895, only 16% of the population was Hague-born - a smaller proportion than those from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). A big difference was that three-quarters of the families in the neighbourhood then had live-in staff. Most of the working population were in class 1 occupations: a category that included senior civil servants, bankers, lawyers, company directors, missionaries and - strangely enough - magnetisers (the forerunners of today's alternative therapists and medical practitioners).
These days, the Bankstraat is the heart of the Archipel: the place to go for a sociable drink or a quiet dinner, or to do your shopping on a Saturday, in the certain knowledge that you'll bump into a host of local friends and acquaintances while you're at it.
'A playboy and a drunkard'
In the 1920s, one of the distinguished gentlemen residents of the "upper" Bankastraat used to receive regular visits from a close friend: Prince Hendrik, consort of Queen Wilhelmina and grandfather of the present queen. Prince Hendrik is described in Wikipedia as 'a playboy and a drunkard'. Apparently, the house in the Bankastraat was one of the places to which he used to escape for a good time behind closed doors. According to local legend, another part of the Bankastraat was also the scene of numerous escapades on the part of this royal boozer. Look carefully at the side wall of Café Banka and you may still be able to make out the shape of a door which allowed him to slip away unseen when threatened with discovery during one of his drinking sessions.
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