Loket 4

The number 4 you see in our logo once decorated the ticket window of the same name in the grand hall of Rotterdam Central Station.

Rotterdam CS was designed by the in-house architect of the Dutch Railway company (NS), Sybold van Ravesteijn and was opened in 1953. It replaced a neo-classical station that was lost during the war. In a modernist style of the day, the building was designed to form a horizontal link between the Commerce Building (Groothandelsgebouw) on the west and a yet to be designed building of similar shape on the east.

Typical features of the building were a slightly curved facade and a spacious grand hall with an arched ceiling that hid light fittings so that the hall was equally illuminated without people having to stare straight into the lights and being distracted from the information in the hall. A similar light concept was built into the rims of the butterfly shaped concrete platform roofs, which came in handy in the days when the route of the trains was posted on the side of the cars.

At the beginning of the 20th century the NS abolished the individual ticket windows and replaced them with a “service area”, stuck at the far end of the hall. On the site of the ticket booths a super market was built, making the overhead numbers obsolete.

Without any pressure at all, the number 4 was handed over by the station master.

Rotterdam CS was demolished in 2008 to make way for a retro-1950s styled building.