Former railroad

In Roombeek most of the industrial buildings were built along a railroad track connecting Enschede with Oldenzaal. The rails have gone long ago, but the path remains as a long straight line through the city, leaving visible traces here and there. The textile factories like Bamshoeve and Rozendaal were built right beside it, along with the Thole machine factory. This pattern of big buildings ran straight through Roombeek, as can be seen in the map. Almost 40% of the neighbourhood's area could be classified as 'industrial'.

After the textile companies left, their buildings were taken over by all sorts of commercial and cultural use. The fireworks depot was one of them. At the same time, the population of the area had become very diverse with people from different cultural or economical background, instead of only factory workers.

This map shows Roombeek when the first factories were being built in a rural landscape.

This map shows the rapid urban development during the prime of the textile industry, which would end during the crisis of the 1930s.

Click here to return to the original map.