A fishing village without a harbour
For centuries Scheveningen lived from sea fishing, with boats that sailed out from the beach and landed there again.
- Terram de Sceveninghe (1284): the name first appears in a count's register from around 1284; the village itself is mentioned in a deed from 1357, in which residents ask the count for a favour.
- Pinks and bomschuiten: as there was no harbour, fishermen sailed from the beach, first in the pink and later in the bomschuit, mainly for flatfish and roundfish.
- The All Saints' Flood (1570): in 1570 half of the village disappeared into the waves, leaving the Oude Kerk on the edge, where it still stands.
- A small village (1680): a count in 1680 recorded 917 people living in 200 houses.
- The Scheveningseweg (1665): for a long time there was only a dune path to The Hague; in 1665 the long, straight Scheveningseweg designed by Constantijn Huygens was completed.
The landing of William I and the seaside resort
In the 19th century Scheveningen took centre stage, first through a historic landing and then through sea bathing.
- William I (1813): on 30 November 1813 the future King William I set foot on Dutch soil again on the beach at Scheveningen; a day later he was proclaimed sovereign prince in Amsterdam.
- The first bath house (1818): local man Jacob Pronk, who also played a part in the landing, opened a wooden bath house with four bathrooms in 1818, replacing it with a stone building in 1820.
- Municipal Bath House (1828): in 1828 the municipality of The Hague bought out Pronk and built the Stedelijk Badhuis; bathers were driven into the sea in bathing coaches, often on doctor's advice.
- The lighthouse (1875): in 1875 the cast iron lighthouse designed by Quirinus Harder was completed, cast by the Nering Bögel ironworks in Deventer.
- The Kurhaus (1884): in 1884 the Maatschappij Zeebad built the Kurhaus in Italian Renaissance style; it burned down a year later but was rebuilt straight away.
Harbour, herring and the First World War
While bathers strolled on one side, the old village remained a poor fishing community that modernised only slowly.
- Poverty and slums: the village had much poor housing and epidemics such as the cholera of 1832, with hundreds of victims; from 1900 the slums were cleared, a task completed around 1935.
- Canals (1862): in 1862 the canal to The Hague opened, followed in 1882 by the Verversingskanaal, which later flowed into the sea harbour.
- A harbour of its own (1903): with the opening of the sea harbour in 1903 and the arrival of the lugger, Scheveningen became one of the leading herring ports for many years; from 1905 fish was auctioned at the harbour instead of on the beach.
- Disaster off the coast (1914): on 22 September 1914 the German submarine U-9 sank three British cruisers off Scheveningen, the Aboukir, the Hogue and the Cressy.
- Fishermen as victims: the Netherlands stayed neutral in the First World War, but especially from 1917 many fishermen lost their lives at sea; the First Fishermen's Monument on the Scheveningseweg was unveiled in 1922.
The Atlantic Wall and the Oranjehotel
The Second World War left deep scars in Scheveningen, much of which had to be rebuilt after the war.
- Restricted area (1942): in 1942 Scheveningen became a restricted zone; buildings were torn down, and a heavy concrete wall on the promenade and a wide anti tank ditch were meant to stop an Allied invasion.
- The pier lost (1943): on 26 March 1943 the pavilion of the old pier burned out, after which the Germans demolished the pier; the present pier opened in 1961.
- The Oranjehotel: during the war resistance fighters and political opponents were held in the Scheveningen prison; because of their loyalties it was nicknamed the Oranjehotel.
- Atlantikwall Museum: since 2005 the Atlantikwall Museum Scheveningen has told the story of this defence line in an original German command bunker on the Badhuisweg.
- Reconstruction: both the resort and the old village were stripped bare after the war, which explains the many post-war buildings.
