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# Canal fronts
- URL: https://monograph.peachfin.site/canal-fronts/
- Published: 2026-05-11T08:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T22:01:39.000Z
- Description: Why the houses on the canal lean, and why nobody straightens them.
- Author: Ines Calloway
- Tags: Essays, #Import 2026-10-13 14:19

The houses lean forward on purpose: goods were hauled up the front on a beam at the gable, and the lean kept loads clear of the windows.

![Canal houses along the water in Amsterdam under a clear evening sky](https://monograph.peachfin.site/content/images/2026/10/architecture.jpg)

The canal at evening, every gable with its hook.

Some also lean sideways, which was not on purpose. The piles under them have settled for three hundred years, and the houses have settled with them.