Every design for Papendrecht

Morning on the Merwede dike: the water taxi pulls in, passengers step aboard for Dordrecht or Rotterdam, and the river keeps moving towards the sea. Papendrecht has always faced the water. It sits where the Beneden Merwede meets the Noord, and the first people here settled along the river for the fish, the shipyards and the reeds that grew on the silted-up land.

The Groothoofdspoort watches from the opposite bank, a reminder of how close Dordrecht is; for years a ferry made the crossing, and kept running for foot passengers even after the bridge was built. On the Papendrecht side, life centres on de Meent, the shopping centre rebuilt in the heart of town, and on the green at its edges, including the Park Noord Hoekse Wiel with its small restored mill. Out in the Noord lies the Sophiapolder. Papendrecht was first named in 1105, but it stayed a small settlement until the 1960s, when it grew until almost all of it was town.

For anyone who grew up here, this map is the loop of dike, river and polder streets you know by heart from the saddle of your bike.