Essentially The Hague for Monday 26 October: Storm Boelo hits city, 735 student flats planned, Oh Oh Den Haag

Monday October 26, 2026

Good morning, The Hague. Today: Storm Boelo leaves damage across the city, 735 student flats are planned on the old Shell site in Rijswijk, and the second season of Oh Oh Den Haag starts Monday.

735 student flats planned on old Rijswijk Shell site: Offices and labs near Rijswijk station make way for a campus of housing, workplaces and gardens called At the Park. The flats measure 23 to 27 square metres in buildings around eleven floors high, with a shared roof terrace, laundry and underground bike parking. Delivery is due in 2027.

Leiderdorp furniture chain's collapse leaves paid orders undelivered: Sedere BV, the company behind three Lederland stores, went bankrupt a month ago, and more than ten customers who paid deposits are still waiting. The administrator is trying to sell the remaining leather stock and checking whether a lender has a claim on it. Four other Lederland stores are unaffected.

Hague city centre logged nearly 34 million December visits: An image survey of the Dutch public found four in ten people who visited in 2025 came between November and January, up from 36% the year before. 13% now name The Hague among the country's most appealing winter cities, level with Rotterdam and Deventer.

Second season of Oh Oh Den Haag starts Monday: The reality series follows eleven residents from different backgrounds, among them Chicco van de Luijtgaarden, Joke Wallis and Ellie Brik, and sets the city's contrasts against its shared humour. Episodes air Monday evenings at 20.30 on SBS6, with two extra ones on Kijk afterwards.

Hague-born Kees van Kooten wins Drs. P Trofee: The society that manages Drs. P's estate announced the award, which goes each year to someone working in his cheerful, free-thinking tradition. The jury praised the writer's precision and his playful inventiveness with language. Van Kooten is 85 and rarely appears in public, so his son Kasper collected the statuette.

Twelve hours of reading in a Hague bookshop: The Bookstor Cafe, across from Paleis Noordeinde, opens overnight from 20.00 on Wednesday 28 October until 08.00 the next morning for an event called Lekker Lang Lezen. Guests bring their own book, blanket or sleeping bag, and food. Tickets cost 24 euros, coffee and croissant included.

Den Haag repair café fixes bikes for free: Volunteers at Repair Café Zuidwest mend clothes, bikes and appliances on Friday mornings, charging only for parts they order. Bike team lead Jacco reckons swapping short drives for cycling saves about 1,200 euros a year. A drop-in coffee corner also works against loneliness in the neighbourhood.

Lange Poten is named after willow saplings, not legs: The street between the Plein and the Spui appears in records as Potenstraet in 1392, when willow saplings were planted along what was then a sandy track to the Haagse Bos. Houses arrived in the early seventeenth century, and the shorter stretch towards the Herengracht became Korte Poten.

Storm Boelo causes damage across The Hague: A tree fell onto a parked car on Guntersteinweg and a branch blocked Hofzichtlaan, diverting HTM bus 24. Firefighters were also called out for flooding after heavy rain. Code yellow runs in Zuid-Holland until 8pm Sunday, with gusts of 75 to 90 kilometres an hour expected near the coast.

Herman's face lost its colour to vitiligo: A white patch appeared near the eye of the 76-year-old from The Hague fifteen years ago, and the patches have since spread across his cheeks, lips and scalp. Light therapy and camouflage cream did not suit him, so he now wears a cap against the sun and the stares.

Time Machine turns a tense story into a whodunnit: A co-production between the HNT youth company and Theater Utrecht, directed by Noël Fischer, that shifts from suspense into a whodunnit. 26 October. FAMILY SHOW

Animal Kingdom on the dome screen, six animal families, ages 5 up: Forty-five minutes of savannah, polar ice and deep ocean across six animal families, Dutch spoken with English audio on your own headset. 26 October, 10:00, Museon - Omniversum. FILM

Dwarf seahorses and tiger sharks in Secrets of the Sea: More than seventy marine species, among them a coconut octopus and manta rays, Dutch spoken with English audio through your own earphones. 26 October, 12:00, Museon-Omniversum dometheater. FILM

Follow red pandas and sharks through Wild Asia: Life at Extremes: The Himalaya, the Gobi and tropical reefs in forty-five minutes of BBC Earth footage, with a daytime ticket that includes museum entry. 26 October, 15:00, Museon - Omniversum. FILM

Free entry to Classical Open Stage, baroque through contemporary: Conservatoire students try out solo, duet and chamber pieces, baroque through contemporary, in the concert hall with free entry. 26 October, 19:00 - 21:00, Koninklijk Conservatorium. DANCE / PERFORMANCE

A relationship drama in the small hall at Theater aan het Spui: Koen Verheijden's Mystiek lichaam looks at people who love each other but cannot bear each other, played in the smaller second hall. 26 October. THEATER

How the French army carried off Willem V's art in 1795: A historian traces the making of stadholder Willem V's collections and their seizure, drawing on archive work in The Hague and Paris. 26 October, 13:30, Museon - Omniversum. TALKS / IDEAS

Digger, Iñárritu's new film in English with Dutch subtitles: Tom Cruise plays the world's most powerful man trying to undo a catastrophe he unleashed, 128 minutes, English with Dutch subtitles. 26 October, 21:15, Filmhuis Den Haag: Studio B. FILM

Who speaks for the river? A talk on life, technology and politics: The question is whether a river can be represented at all, set against life, technology and politics in one interwoven world. 26 October, 19:00, Amare Studio, Amare. TALKS / IDEAS

Mohammad Hatta and Anton de Kom, neighbours in Bezuidenhout: Two anti-colonial writers who lived in the same neighbourhood at once, presented by a researcher who worked through archives and Hatta's memoirs. 26 October, PEP Den Haag. TALKS / IDEAS

Cities of the Future, fifty minutes on flying cars and smart buildings: Innovations that may become ordinary, including solar energy from space, shown on the dome screen in Dutch and suitable from six up. 26 October, 11:00, Museon-Omniversum dometheater. ART / MUSEUMS

Meet4Music hands its evening over to rhythm at Amare: The Meet4Music series gives this session to rhythm, a workshop where you take part rather than sit and listen. 26 October, 19:00, Amare Studio, Amare. WORKSHOP

A winter meditation group in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh: Twenty-one Monday evenings following Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet, English course material discussed in Dutch, some meditation experience expected. 26 October, 19:00 - 21:30, Boeddhistisch Centrum Haaglanden (BCH). WORKSHOP

Free knitting and crochet café at the Ypenburg library: The BreiBYp group makes stuffed toys to donate, coffee, needles and yarn are there, and nobody needs to book. 26 October, 13:30 - 15:00, Bibliotheek Ypenburg. GAMES / HOBBIES

Draughts tables for seniors, free, led by a former champion: A former Surinamese champion leads the tables, beginners and experienced players both welcome, and company matters as much as the game. 26 October, 14:30 - 15:30, Bibliotheek Transvaalkwartier. GAMES / HOBBIES

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