TOKO MERAH & RODE WINKEL COFFEE THE STORY

Photo Toko Merah taken around year 2018

If you are the same age with me, then you probably know about this building. Tucked along the west bank of Kali Besar in Jakarta's Old Town, a red-brick building has watched the city change shape for nearly three centuries. Then near the end 2023, it goes by two names at once: Toko Merah, the haunted colonial landmark locals whisper about, and Rode Winkel, the coffee house that now welcomes anyone curious enough to walk through its doors.

History, Story and Coffee:

A Building That Outlived an Empire

The Legend Behind the Red Walls

From Abandoned Warehouse to Aesthetic Cafe

Visiting Rode Winkel

 

A Building That Outlived an Empire

Toko Merah (In English: Red Shop) was built around 1730, making it one of the oldest structures still standing in Jakarta. It was commissioned by Gustaaf Willem Baron van Imhoff, a rising VOC official who would later become Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Originally, the building served as his private residence, prized for its location near Batavia's trading center and city hall.

Architecturally, Toko Merah is essentially twin houses joined under a single roof, built solidly enough that it has survived the Java War, the brief British occupation under Stamford Raffles, and the collapse of the VOC itself. Over the following two centuries it changed hands and functions repeatedly. It has become a place for naval academy, a residence for Dutch officials, a hotel, and a bank.

The building's signature crimson color actually came later than most people assume. It wasn't painted red until 1851, after the property passed to a Chinese businessman named Oey Liauw Kong, who ran it as a shop and residence. He and his descendants managed the building until 1895, after which it was restored in 1923 and eventually taken over by PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI), a state trading company. Toko Merah was declared a protected cultural heritage site in 1993, but by 2003 the building had emptied out entirely and sat abandoned for two decades.

The Legend Behind the Red Walls

Toko Merah's unsettling reputation traces back to 1740, a year before the building even bears its famous color. That year, VOC soldiers carried out a massacre against Batavia's ethnic Chinese population; acting under orders from Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier. This event remembered as the Geger Pecinan, or the Chinese Massacre of Batavia. Thousands were killed, and according to local lore, bodies were dumped along Kali Besar, right in front of where Toko Merah stands, until the canal's water reportedly ran red.

That grim backstory has fed generations of ghost stories. Vendors and longtime residents near the building describe hearing a woman crying inside when no one is there, or the sound of marching footsteps at night. Visitors have reported sudden episodes of possession while taking photographs out front, sometimes shouting in Dutch; which a language they don't speak. The most recurring tale involves a pale figure in a white dress, or sometimes a Dutch noblewoman, seen standing behind an upstairs window staring out at the street. Some versions of the story say she was a Dutch woman who tried to protect Chinese residents during the massacre and was killed for it, her face disfigured in the violence.

True or not, the legend has made Toko Merah a fixture on Jakarta's "urban legend tour" circuit, mentioned in the same breath as other reputedly haunted sites like Menara Saidah and the Kasablanka Tunnel. For years, that eerie reputation was arguably better known than the building's actual architectural and historical significance.

Photo taken around December 2023

From Abandoned Warehouse to Aesthetic Café 

After sitting empty since 2003, Toko Merah found new life on November 1, 2023, when Rode Winkel Coffee & Savoury opened inside its front section. The name is simply Dutch for "Red Shop", as the Indonesia name: Toko Merah. According to the café's general manager, Andreas Rizky, the goal was to put an unused heritage building back into productive use rather than let it decay further.

Walk in today and the mix of eras is immediate: colonial-era architecture with tall doors, high ceilings, wooden staircases, and oversized windows, layered with Chinese decorative touches from the Oey family's era, all wrapped around a modern coffee shop. Keroncong music often plays in the background, adding to the old-Batavia atmosphere. The café is split into two areas. An air-conditioned indoor room and an open-air area; currently occupies the ground floor, with the upper floor gradually being renovated for future use.

The menu leans into a coffee-house-meets-Nusantara concept: espresso-based drinks, manual brew coffee, tea, juices, and smoothies alongside Indonesian comfort food like nasi goreng, oxtail soup, and iga bakar (grilled ribs), plus items like garlic wings and fried bananas. Prices depends on what your orders, which keeps it accessible for casual visits rather than a special-occasion-only spot.

For many visitors, though, the food and coffee are almost secondary to the experience of simply being inside the building. I remembered so excited, I never thought that I finally have a chance to sit somewhere that was, until recently, sealed off and half-forgotten, and to see firsthand whether the atmosphere really does feel as charged as the stories claim.

Visiting Rode Winkel

The coffee shop is directly across from the Kali Besar Transjakarta stop. Their operating hours start from 10:00 up to 22:00 Monday to Friday. The good news, they open start from early 07:00 during weekends. The bad news, they really gets busy on weekends, so if you have the time, better come here on weekdays. 

Whether you come for the ghost stories, the history, or just a decent cup of coffee in a striking setting, Rode Winkel offers a rare thing in a fast-changing city: a 300-year-old building that's still, in its own way, alive.