The Hague’s zebra clock could return to the square outside Central Station at the end of 2026, nearly 50 years after it was unveiled.
The illuminated landmark on Koningin Julianaplein has been in a depot since July 2016, when it was removed for the underground bicycle parking and the residential towers.
Jaap Karman designed it for the city and Dutch Railways, which wanted an artistic clock visible from at least three sides.
He put three clock faces on a six-metre pole, and the black-and-white stripes soon earned it the zebra nickname.
It came into use in July 1977 and was damaged by fire six months later.
Eight years later it burned again, probably because of a short circuit, and it was not restored to its old place until 1988.
The clock was taken away again in 1997 for work on the Koningstunnel and only reappeared in May 2001.
A photograph of the clock on fire features in Den Haag Rampenstad bij Nacht en ontij, an exhibition of Jos van Leeuwen’s work from the past 50 years.
It can be seen during Museumnacht on Saturday 10 October at the temporary home of the Haags Historisch Museum at Lekstraat 160.
