Parc de la Rosée

In the 1960s, the municipality of Anderlecht expropriated dozens of homes, warehouses and factories here. The plan was that after they had been demolished, seven new housing blocks would be built. Only one of these buildings was constructed: for years, the brown-brick old people’s flats behind the fitness equipment stood in the middle of the cleared ground.

A colourful snake adorns the wall on the left. In the 1980s, the municipal authorities erected a steel wall with barbed wire here to close off a route used by loitering youths to escape from the police. It was a telling symbol of how local politicians in Anderlecht looked down on the neighbourhood. The park opened in 2010, but only after intense pressure from the Brussels Region on the municipality of Anderlecht. Local residents and artists came up with the design together. With its multiple entrances, it is well connected with the surrounding streets, and is one of the few open spaces in this densely populated area.

UiTinBrussel