Stichting Perdu: Theatre in Burgwallen, Amsterdam

Perdu is a poetry bookshop, small theatre and publishing house on the Kloveniersburgwal in the centre of Amsterdam. It is the only specialist poetry bookshop in the city, and its evenings of readings, performance and debate sit where literature meets experiment. The shop stocks Dutch and English titles chosen by its booksellers, alongside poetry magazines, first editions, special editions, classics and postcards, and there is a reading table where you can sit with a book and a coffee. The opening hours shown here are the shop's. In the theatre, Perdu's own editorial team programmes De Avonden: readings, performances, meetings and debates at the crossing of poetry, literature, art and philosophy, in Dutch, English and other languages, at as low a ticket price as it can manage. On most other days guest organisations rent the room. Perdu began in 1984 as a small bookshop on the Gerard Doustraat in De Pijp, started by Chris Keulemans and Agnes van Bruggen, then moved to the Kerkstraat and has been on the Kloveniersburgwal since 1995. The theatre was the kitchen and nurses' home of the Binnengasthuis, built in 1908 in a style inspired by Berlage, and the iron trusses are still exposed under its high ceiling. Volunteers run the shop, the publisher and the programme, supported by a small office team.