An endless number of convents
The name of the alley, it is assumed, refers to the large number of convents and monasteries that stood in this part of Amsterdam in the Middle Ages. Amsterdammers walking into the alley and passing the endless convents might well have said to each other: this is a prayer without end.
On the site of today's Gebed Zonder End stood a nunnery founded around 1397: the Sint Claraconvent. The convent grounds covered an area between the Nes and the Oudezijds Voorburgwal. The grounds did not extend as far as the Grimburgwal, because that is where the medieval city wall ran.
