Arsenal

The railway district of Mechelen makes it clear with its toponyms that work was done here and there was a strong link with trains: Locomotiefstraat, Tenderstraat (tender is a type of locomotive), Draaibankstraat, Aambeeldstraat, Hamerstraat, Wagonstraat,... As in many railway districts in Belgium, you will find the same type of houses here: in Northern English style. As Pascal Verbeken puts it in his book Grand Central Belge: "On the European continent you get nowhere closer to Sheffield or Bradford than in the Belgian railway districts". Did you know that workers were contractually obliged to live near the Workshop? In many of these clay houses they lived with ten or twelve children. There was a vibrant social level. In this district alone there were 42 cafes over a few hundred meters. If it "blew" on the Arsenal before lunch break, the pints were already placed in rows on the counter.

Pascal Brackman