June 13, 2000

Coffeeshop Pink Floyd

Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Just a few blocks west from the train station and one block south at Haarlemmerstraat 44 is a small, angled doorway to a coffeeshop. A sign outside the door tells you the coffeeshop offers coffee, espresso, cappucino, tea, hot chocolate and more. But the only hint of the main features within are the bright balloon lettering in the windows announcing "Pink Floyd" and "Ummagumma." As a Pink Floyd fan, you're naturally compelled to look inside. It's only when you step through the old, dim doorway that you see the true nature of this unique Floydian monument.
  1. The doorway to Ummagumma: Coffeeshop Pink Floyd offers only the dimmest glimpse of what lies inside, but the bright lettering is a hint.
  2. Another view outside the door of Coffeeshop Pink Floyd.
  3. Flowers dance and the Wife leers through the tiles in Coffeeshop Pink Floyd's kitchen. A sign proclaims the shop's "31 kinds of T." (Need you be reminded that before they became Pink Floyd, the band was once known as "The T-Set"?)
  4. The back room of Coffeeshop Pink Floyd has the record salesman from Wish You Were Here and the Dark Side of the Moon prism above a bar.
  5. The back room also displays a painting honoring Ummagumma, More, Live at Pompeii and the post-Floyd careers of both Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. To the left is Mr Lightbulbs from Delicate Sound of Thunder.
  6. The front of a postcard from Coffeeshop Pink Floyd shows four views of the inside of the shop.
    • The entrance to Ummagumma: Coffeeshop Pink Floyd
    • Two paintings pay tribute to the Momentary Lapse of Reason tours. Three masks from Waters' The Wall in Berlin concert decorate a counter.
    • A wide view of the back room shows Pink Floyd murals on three walls and the ceiling.
    • The murals in the kitchen even go as far as to recognize A Collection of Great Dance Songs.
  7. The back of the postcard includes a small map of the location of Coffeeshop Pink Floyd.
  8. Not far away is another Pink Floyd coffeeshop, The Wall. Above the door are paintings of images from The Wall, and the handshake from Wish You Were Here. Inside, the coffeeshop offers a menu of drinks and treats which includes "special brownies."


The biggest fan in the Netherlands:

  • Larissa:
    This is me in the pink floyd coffee shop in amsterdam. I found it through peter houwelings homepage. I stepped in and never came out again. By now i think you could call me a regular there because i come there every week to relax after a long school day.

  • Larissa:
    I dont know who made this painting but its very cool! Its got just about every pink floyd album in it. The mill from more, you see the wall (very small) and all the members ofcaurse.

  • Larissa:
    This is my favorite painting in the shop. Its done in an airbrush technique by a friend of mine called MGM. He did about half of all the great wall paintings there, but this is truly a masterpiece.

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