The area between Kloveniersburgwal and Zwanenburgwal was outside the city walls until the 16th century. The cloth industry was located here; the Staalhof was its centre. The Staalhof complex consisted of a silk hall, a cloth hall and a saai hall (saai was a lightly twilled woollen fabric, i.e. with a diagonal pattern). Of the Saaihal (1641) at Staalstraat 7, Pieter de Keyser’s facade remains intact.
