Do you know! These Zoetermeer street names were first used in the Netherlands in the 1970s

We all know the film area in the De Leyens district: the Bunuel strip, Eisenstein strip, Disney strip and more street names named after film directors and actors. Not very special in itself because we see those names more often in cities. What is special: Zoetermeer was the first city to use this film theme in its street names.

In February 1977, the national newspapers reported that Zoetermeer was the first city in the Netherlands, and probably also in Europe, to use well-known film actors and directors in a new residential area.

Even the Leeuwarder Courant, the largest newspaper in Friesland, published one short article about this subject. That was big news for that time, because in no Dutch city had a street naming committee come up with a film theme for new streets. In our city yes!

Now we don’t know any better

The Zoetermeer city council still had to approve the idea at the time, and that has finally happened. Because since then we know no better than that the streets Fellini strip, John Ford strip and Visconti strip are just behind the Filmlaan in the Leyens.

Street names in Zoetermeer

Did you know that street names in Zoetermeer are not just randomly invented and that there is a real street name committee behind it? We wrote about it earlier in this article.