Frédéric Moreau
@goodclimate.bsky.social
Brussels stuff, from the slopes of the Wyngaerd Berg.
Journalism here
https://www.brusselstimes.com/author/frederic-moreau
Journalism here
https://www.brusselstimes.com/author/frederic-moreau
The estate agents suggests that a two storey roof extension is a possibility for the protected monument.
November 11, 2025 at 11:18 AM
The estate agents suggests that a two storey roof extension is a possibility for the protected monument.
For sale, one of the last surviving luxury mansions in rue de la Loi, from 1860. In 1900, architect Léon Govaerts added an art nouveau bank in the back yard. Asking price €25m.
www.immobestinternational.com/fr/detail/58...
www.immobestinternational.com/fr/detail/58...
November 11, 2025 at 11:13 AM
For sale, one of the last surviving luxury mansions in rue de la Loi, from 1860. In 1900, architect Léon Govaerts added an art nouveau bank in the back yard. Asking price €25m.
www.immobestinternational.com/fr/detail/58...
www.immobestinternational.com/fr/detail/58...
River Senne. Central Brussels, 1870.
November 11, 2025 at 12:22 AM
River Senne. Central Brussels, 1870.
Banned in England! Dawn, the Edith Cavell biopic, 1928. At the Agora, Grand-Place Brussels.
November 10, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Banned in England! Dawn, the Edith Cavell biopic, 1928. At the Agora, Grand-Place Brussels.
The Future is Claptrap.
November 10, 2025 at 7:57 PM
The Future is Claptrap.
Rue de la Loi 159, now Justus Lipsius building. In 1882, an Antwerp lawyer was shot dead here by his wife's lover's brother who lured him there by posing as a steamship investor and gun collector. The 'Peltzer Affair' was turned into a hit play the following year and a Hollywood movie in 1934.
November 10, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Rue de la Loi 159, now Justus Lipsius building. In 1882, an Antwerp lawyer was shot dead here by his wife's lover's brother who lured him there by posing as a steamship investor and gun collector. The 'Peltzer Affair' was turned into a hit play the following year and a Hollywood movie in 1934.
BBC radio, October 6 1939. I wonder if Adolf in Blunderland is in the archive.
November 8, 2025 at 8:32 PM
BBC radio, October 6 1939. I wonder if Adolf in Blunderland is in the archive.
Place de Brouckère 2019. Soon, most of this view will be facadised: facades retained for the old buildings on the right and facades replaced to suit 2020s sensibilities for the Monnaie building left and Philips building right.
November 8, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Place de Brouckère 2019. Soon, most of this view will be facadised: facades retained for the old buildings on the right and facades replaced to suit 2020s sensibilities for the Monnaie building left and Philips building right.
Tourist slide of place de Brouckère in 1968 (Villa Rides with Yul Brynner is on at the Eldorado). In 11 years the fountain will be removed for the metro project. Looming right, rhe brand new Philips building, now sterilised and renamed Multi.
November 8, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Tourist slide of place de Brouckère in 1968 (Villa Rides with Yul Brynner is on at the Eldorado). In 11 years the fountain will be removed for the metro project. Looming right, rhe brand new Philips building, now sterilised and renamed Multi.
Place de Brouckère 1953 (Man on a Tightrope with Fredric March at the Eldorado and All I Desire with Barbara Stanwyck at the Scala). Looks fabulous in neon.
November 8, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Place de Brouckère 1953 (Man on a Tightrope with Fredric March at the Eldorado and All I Desire with Barbara Stanwyck at the Scala). Looks fabulous in neon.
The same view in 1939. After a fire, the Compagnie Anglaise (UK fashions) has been rebuilt on the left in a trendy white functionalist style and the Eldorado cinema on the right has an new entrance, decorated with cubist murals destroyed in the 1970s. Parking is no problem.
November 8, 2025 at 8:16 PM
The same view in 1939. After a fire, the Compagnie Anglaise (UK fashions) has been rebuilt on the left in a trendy white functionalist style and the Eldorado cinema on the right has an new entrance, decorated with cubist murals destroyed in the 1970s. Parking is no problem.
Place de Brouckère looking south, 1936 (Charlie Chan at the Race Track is on at the Scala). Anspach fountain in the foreground (bits of it still exist nearby). Dear left is the old post office block (now Oxy) and right was a row of cafes and billiard halls ( now Multi Tower).
November 8, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Place de Brouckère looking south, 1936 (Charlie Chan at the Race Track is on at the Scala). Anspach fountain in the foreground (bits of it still exist nearby). Dear left is the old post office block (now Oxy) and right was a row of cafes and billiard halls ( now Multi Tower).
Rossel left for Paris in 1914 but returned to the house to die. By the mid-1920s, his moorish sitting room was a naff Victorian throwback for residents of the Melrose Family Residence rooming house. Demolished in the 1970s.
November 8, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Rossel left for Paris in 1914 but returned to the house to die. By the mid-1920s, his moorish sitting room was a naff Victorian throwback for residents of the Melrose Family Residence rooming house. Demolished in the 1970s.
Rue Gachard, Ixelles. An 1898 mansion by Hubert Marcq in the international style of the period for Emile Rossel, founder-director of Belgian newspaper Le Soir. No art nouveau nonsense for him.
November 8, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Rue Gachard, Ixelles. An 1898 mansion by Hubert Marcq in the international style of the period for Emile Rossel, founder-director of Belgian newspaper Le Soir. No art nouveau nonsense for him.
Forgotten pedestrianisation. Square Ambiorix. Until the 1970s, this was a road.
November 8, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Forgotten pedestrianisation. Square Ambiorix. Until the 1970s, this was a road.
19th-Century vertical living and 1970s horizontal living. Rue de Nancy. Marolles, Brussels.
November 8, 2025 at 7:49 PM
19th-Century vertical living and 1970s horizontal living. Rue de Nancy. Marolles, Brussels.
Late-1970s pastiche houses, rue de la Violette in Brussels, a few steps away from the Grand-Place. On the fringe of the îlot sacré, an aesthetic truce cooked up from the 1920s onwards between developers, politicians and preservationists to present a lucrative trad appearance for tourists.
November 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Late-1970s pastiche houses, rue de la Violette in Brussels, a few steps away from the Grand-Place. On the fringe of the îlot sacré, an aesthetic truce cooked up from the 1920s onwards between developers, politicians and preservationists to present a lucrative trad appearance for tourists.
The Solvay mansion, on the right, had interesting neighbours until the 1970s, after Brussels City declared open season on avenue Louise. Only the 1935 block in the left survives. It was home to historian Xavier Duquenne, who wrote a book about the destruction of the street and saw it all happen.
November 8, 2025 at 6:55 PM
The Solvay mansion, on the right, had interesting neighbours until the 1970s, after Brussels City declared open season on avenue Louise. Only the 1935 block in the left survives. It was home to historian Xavier Duquenne, who wrote a book about the destruction of the street and saw it all happen.
Is this him too?
November 8, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Is this him too?
As late as 1910, the GB edition of Baedeker Belgium gives Waterloo 10.5 pages plus maps. By 1931, the same guide has read the room, giving Waterloo just 1.5 pages compared to 4.5 pages for the Ypres Salient alone. Published in Germany, it also disgracefully both-sides the destruction of Leuven.
November 6, 2025 at 9:19 PM
As late as 1910, the GB edition of Baedeker Belgium gives Waterloo 10.5 pages plus maps. By 1931, the same guide has read the room, giving Waterloo just 1.5 pages compared to 4.5 pages for the Ypres Salient alone. Published in Germany, it also disgracefully both-sides the destruction of Leuven.
Brussels 1665 looking E. Blue dot: la Chapelle. Red dot: Grosse Tour, built 1420s, blown up 1807. A terrace was built here for Waterloo tourists to enjoy sundowners with a view. The area became popular with English immigrants, who built a church, now a nightclub. Avenue Louise now starts here
November 6, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Brussels 1665 looking E. Blue dot: la Chapelle. Red dot: Grosse Tour, built 1420s, blown up 1807. A terrace was built here for Waterloo tourists to enjoy sundowners with a view. The area became popular with English immigrants, who built a church, now a nightclub. Avenue Louise now starts here
Brussels 1665. Top, cathedral. Bottom, Augustine convent, now place de Brouckère. Used as British military hospital after Waterloo. Then a protestant church with a box for the new royal family imported from England, later a post office. Facade re-erected at the end of rue du Bailli in Ixelles.
November 6, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Brussels 1665. Top, cathedral. Bottom, Augustine convent, now place de Brouckère. Used as British military hospital after Waterloo. Then a protestant church with a box for the new royal family imported from England, later a post office. Facade re-erected at the end of rue du Bailli in Ixelles.
Just a month after the battle, British Waterloo-tourism is up and running. It shaped much of the tourist industry in what would become Belgium and eased just a little over the following century when its draw was eclipsed by the Great War sites.
November 6, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Just a month after the battle, British Waterloo-tourism is up and running. It shaped much of the tourist industry in what would become Belgium and eased just a little over the following century when its draw was eclipsed by the Great War sites.
Memorial in the cemetery of the City of Brussels to British officers killed in the Waterloo campaign. By London born and raised sculptor Jacques de Lalaing and inaugurated in August 1890 (some of the remains were moved from a protestant cemetery closed as the city expanded).
November 6, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Memorial in the cemetery of the City of Brussels to British officers killed in the Waterloo campaign. By London born and raised sculptor Jacques de Lalaing and inaugurated in August 1890 (some of the remains were moved from a protestant cemetery closed as the city expanded).
Among Tilley's surviving designs is his own home. Rue Vilain XIIII number 7 is down the hill from avenue Louise, where the architect was run over by a tram in 1929, dying a few days later.
November 6, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Among Tilley's surviving designs is his own home. Rue Vilain XIIII number 7 is down the hill from avenue Louise, where the architect was run over by a tram in 1929, dying a few days later.