The Old Plum

Around 1871, bricklayer, farmer, workman and day laborer Petrus Derauw designed and built an inn in the Langestraat (now the road to Uccle) in Beersel.
He wants to run this inn together with his wife Anna and also start a beer business.
He christens the inn 'The Old Plum', as a coincidence:
Petrus, like many other Beerselaars at that time, was a fruit merchant. At that time, the fruit trade was a thriving activity, which could easily be combined with the butter and cheese trade.
On a certain day, the sale of Peter's plums does not go so smoothly and he has to go home with a large surplus. The next day he makes another attempt to sell the same plums at the market, but Peter's buyers soon find out that the plums are not fresh. Since then, he has been called 'Pie with the old plums'. Another explanation is that due to the drought in 1871, the plums on the trees wrinkled and fell down, but Peter tried to sell them anyway...

His second son, Jacobus, will take over the trade.
Jacobus' half-sister, Philippina, will set up a new inn on the other side of the street: De Nieuwe Pruim.
Lom Derauw becomes the next brewer of the 'Oude Pruim', his brother Theodoor sets up a warehouse in the village and christens his own beer shop 'In de Oude Pruim'.
In 1934, Lom's half-sister, Catharina Derauw, started an inn with her husband: 'In de nieuwe Oude Pruim'. The Derauw family did not have to be inferior to each other at the time...

Pierre, Lom's son, continued the business until 1963. The buildings are still as they were back then and give a good idea of what it was like back then.

De Lambiek