The Palace of Charles of Lorraine, Brussels. Home to a protestant chapel from 1816. Over the rest of the century, a knot of British-themed commerce sprang up between here and place Royale. Taverns (The Turf, Wellington etc), hotels, bookshops, travel agents, grocers, fixers.
Just behind Brussels cathedral, the 1921 Westminster Foreign Bank, built by the Franco-British duo Mewes & Davis, also responsible for the London Ritz and Luton Hoo
While the Brussels traffic still snarls below on the Avenue Louise, the renovated icon promises energy-efficient luxury and a nostalgic nod to its 1960s origins. https://t.co/Lxc4nlInvC
The latest @BrusselsTimes Magazine is on sale now!
Few would tie Belgium to carmaking. Beer, chocolate, comic strips, Art Nouveau, yes.
But cars?
Yet, Belgians are pretty good it, with a remarkable record as automotive pioneers.
Cover art by @lectrr
We have three features on august Brussels venues reopening. @goodclimate writes about the Louise Tower, one of the city’s first skyscrapers in the city, a sleek, modernist, 1960s monument that has been stripped and remade for the 21st century.
@nialloconghaile They're discussing this now on Any Questions on Radio 4 and I really should have turned off after listening to Mark Kermode. BBC news and current affairs output is not something I can stomach anymore.
@GAVClaw@aitorehm I think Aitor has the answers in the replies already. Imo, initially, shallow plots for stores, the lack of light pre-electricity and the preference for Parisian and then increasingly historicist 'Belgian' architecture are the main factors. And then department stores arrived.
It was supposed to be Belgium’s El Dorado, but the little-known Caribbean colony in Guatemala would end in destitution, disease, dictatorship and disaster. https://t.co/d4mfJbKtF5