Rue Neuve, Brussels

• Rue Neuve (French)
• Nieuwstraat (Dutch)

The Rue Neuve/Nieuwstraat in Brussels
Location within Brussels Show map of Brussels Rue Neuve, Brussels (Belgium) Show map of Belgium
Location	City of Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium
Quarter	Marais–Jacqmain Quarter
Coordinates	50°51′11″N 04°21′23″E

The Rue Neuve (French, pronounced [ʁy nœv]) or Nieuwstraat (Dutch, pronounced [ˈniustraːt]), meaning "New Street", is a pedestrian street in central Brussels, Belgium. It runs between the Place de la Monnaie/Muntplein and the Rue du Fossé aux Loups/Wolvengracht to the south and the Place Charles Rogier/Karel Rogierplein and the Boulevard du Jardin botanique/Kruidtuinlaan to the north.[1]

The Rue Neuve and its close surroundings are the second most popular shopping area in Belgium by number of shoppers, after Meir in Antwerp.[2] It is served by the metro and premetro (underground tram) stations De Brouckère (on lines 1, 4, 5 and 10) and Rogier (on lines 2, 4, 6 and 10).

History

The street used to be called the Rue Notre-Dame/Onze-Lieve-Vrouwstraat ("Our Lady's Street"), after the Church of Our Lady of Finisterrae, which now stands in the middle of the retail district. It has been a centre of commercial activity since at least the end of the 19th century, and was known as a centre of luxury shopping in the early 20th century. The street was pedestrianised in 1975.[3]

The Rue Neuve/Nieuwstraat on a busy day

Nowadays, the Rue Neuve has the second highest rents of any street in Belgium, at €1,600/square metre/year (the Meir shopping street in Antwerp ranks first, with €1,700/square metre/year).[4] However, it has been criticised by some for being too "boring" architecturally, uniformly "mass market", lacking in independent retailers, without variety of uses, and with very few residents.[3] The City of Brussels has plans to bring more residents to the street and to make it more "attractive".[5]

See also

• List of streets in Brussels
• History of Brussels
• Belgium in the long nineteenth century

References

Citations

1. "Rue Neuve – Inventaire du patrimoine architectural". monument.heritage.brussels (in French). Retrieved 4 November 2023.
2. "Meir klopt voor het eerst Nieuwstraat als drukste winkelstraat". De Standaard (in Dutch). Belga. 7 January 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
3. Mikolajczak, Charlotte (9 November 2013). "La rue Neuve leur appartient". La Libre (in French). Retrieved 4 June 2016.
4. "High Streets – The Rental Hit Parade". Pro-Realestate.be. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
5. Du solide pour une rue Neuve habitée ! (PDF) (in French). Atelier de Recherche et d'Action urbaines. Retrieved 4 June 2016 – via ARAU.org.

Bibliography

• Le Patrimoine monumental de la Belgique: Bruxelles (PDF) (in French). Vol. 1C: Pentagone N-Z. Liège: Pierre Mardaga. 1994. p. 12–27.

External links

• Media related to Rue Neuve/Nieuwstraat, Brussels at Wikimedia Commons