No need to overthink official district designations here, this city is not big enough to justify that. To be sure, switching back and forth between the port and Zuid or between University district and Zurenborg will come with visible and abrupt contrasts. But a measured walk across neighborhoods should be more fluid, less discontinuous, no flashing lights announcing you have suddenly crossed the border into another district. However the mini metropolis too much history, much of it colorful – and historically impressive periods of absolute and relative population size and wealth – not to focus attention on the cultural richness of a few of its neighborhoods. Constant change is very much a part of life in any thriving city – renewal, repurposing of the old, repopulation, gentrification, integration of neglected blocks – but change is not dispensed equally across all areas, justifying the talk about neighborhoods, a little. We will use density, history, and urban change as excuses here but only to provide structure and context rather than divide, break up, and fragment further. Zoning has something to do with it too – trades clustering together looking for strength in numbers – especially in the arts since creative people prefer to hang out with other creative people. It is no coincidence that areas along Meir–Schoenmarkt–Reyndersstraat and along Schutterhostraat to Sint-Andriesstraat axis are almost entirely dedicated to high fashion. Nor that the Theater District immediately to the S is anchored by at least half a dozen stages – including the historic Bourla, the Hetpalais, and venues like the Echt Antwaarps, the Toneelhuis, the Arenberg, and the Stadsschowburg Antwerp – and more if you extend the boundaries to Mechlensplein and Stadspark. Nor that vintage shops and antique stores cluster along Kloosterstraat running trough St Andrews. And don’t get me started on the red light district – did I just include it with the rest of creative occupations? – crammed into just three streets in the old Schipperskwartier.
The world’s leading diamond district occupies the city’s most famous square mile (not very photogenic but an object of obsession for tourists) right next to the palatial Centraal Station and the Stadtpark. For 570 years, since 1440s, Antwerp has been the epicenter of the world’s diamond trade with overwhelming market share of global trade, over 80% in rough diamonds and 50% in polished diamonds. Today, 535 years since the first record of diamond cutting in Antwerp, the diamond capital of the world counts four diamond exchanges with 2,000 members, more than any other city, 300 jewelry shops, and 1,850 diamond manufacturing and trading firms that employ 34,000 people contributing $48BN of annual trading revenue or 5% to Belgium’s exports and 70% of the country’s trade surplus. The diamond sector of Antwerp’s economy even has its own 2020 development master plan. The world’s largest Diamond Museum has moved from its former location on the edge of the diamond district behind a handsome facade on Koningin Astridplein next to grand Centraal Station and the historic Zoo to its new location in a former ethnographic museum building on Suikerrui and Gildekamerstraat right next to the Standhuis where it is expected to open in May 2018 as DIVA, a combination of the diamond and silver museums. The diamond district is host to the Portuguese synagogue and is an interesting nexus in the history of Ashkenazy and Sephardic Jewish Europe, and to this day one of the largest – in absolute and relative terms – Jewish communities of urban Europe. The original 16th century Sephardic community prospered with trade during Antwerp’s Golden Age but migrated during its decline to Amsterdam, the city’s diamond industry boosted again by an influx of Ashkenazy Jews in late 19th century, further expanding through 1930’s with immigration of Central European Jews, and the return of the Jews after WWII, helped by the city’s efforts to restore the global standing of its diamond trade.
Stylish Zurenborg, a resi area to the S and E, is a rarely visited repository of stunning Art Nouveau facades. You will find on display in this quiet turn of the 20th century residential area most of the city’s singularly ornate building stock of fin-de-sciecle townhouses reminiscent of their better known Brussels counterparts by Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde. Antwerp’s Zurenborg is certainly on par with many parts of the capital’s Avenue Louise, Ixelles, Square Ambiorix, St Gilles, and Schaerbeek neighborhoods built out in the same period and style. In Zurenborg‘s center, Dageraadplaats, a large open square and a mini hub of the quaint local cafe and bar scene, its nonchalant East Village feel reminiscent of NYC’s Tompkins Square Park. It is exactly half way between other points of interest, it is a long block away from the Dome restaurant and from Draakplaats, another hub of the local beer cafe scene, which links Zurenborg with the more noteworthy Cogels-Osylei street across the railroad tracks. Just two blocks long, one on either side of a roundabout, Cogels-Osylei is a succession of small scale neoclassical and Art Nouveau facades behind a narrow strip of front lawns. Similar to New York’s SoHo, it was saved from the bulldozer in the 1960s to become a showcase of preservation, every one of its relatively new by local standards but masterfully detailed facades has a protected landmark status. It is only fitting that the birthplace of Art Nouveau, the most nuanced and least Greco-Roman of Western styles, is the country for centuries obsessed with detail, whether it is in art, fashion or stone carving.
The port, the world’s largest in the 1500’s, and ranked fourth only recently, occupies half the area of the city without encroaching on its center, its engineering and petchem industries remain out of sight but add critical mass and vibrancy any city of this size needs. Instead the port, with its proximity, great history, and infrastructure, has become the ground zero of Antwerp’s renewal, the sightseeing value of the port’s canals now discovered by boat tour operators. A thriving business, the port of Antwerp is about much more than diamonds where it plays a big role. It is Europe’s most important oil and chemicals pipeline network node, and the continent’s largest and most diverse integrated chemical, industrial, logistics and storage cluster, employing 150,000 people. Investment continues, by the world’s largest industrial companies operating on thousands of acres of quays of concessions, the port is also a proud host of the iconic Port Authority building, a recent signature work by Zaha Hadid, an international design firm whose talented Iraqi founder rose to international fame as a winner of industry’s highest Pritzker Architecture Prize and other prestigious awards, a guest lecturer at the top schools of architecture. The Museum aan de Stroom (MAS) built on the old site of the Hansa trading nation, its shell of red sandstone cubes alternating with bands of green corrugated glass wall, its interior a continuous spiral walk to the top, now housing ‘t Zilte, a two Michelin star panoramic restaurant, is a great anchor tenant in the redevelopment of the old docks, scenic in their own way – as long as one appreciates the austere, muscular architecture or old warehouses and the industrial beauty of portal crane steel structures.
Het Eilandje and the surrounding docks – during Antwerp’s Golden Age part of Nieuwstad, the old sea harbor, revived again after centuries of blockade after the fall of Antwerp by Napoleon, but partially destroyed and later effectively abandoned – has been gentrified, thanks in part to a dysfunctional and ultimately stalled plan and international design competition of the 1990’s, a new master plan from 2002, and last 10 years of higher density waterfront redevelopment. Het Eilandje and the quays to the W and N now host several of the city’s popular nightclubs that complete Antwerp’s nightclubs scene in the Schipperskwartier area, its groovy lounge and DJ scene in the Zuid and closer to the Centraal Station. The up and coming and trendy residential Het Eilandje is safely isolated from the Schipperskwartier – from crowds of active customers and window shoppers transacting or looking at the offering displayed along Schippersstraat, Vingerlingstraat, and Verversrui, three main pedestrian streets of the city’s civilized, well-maintained and recently updated red light district – by the busy and tree-lined Brouwersvliet behind two blocks facing the water. The reclaimed old port has a connection to the historic center via Falconplein, a gentrified street that widens into an open space that hosts Sunday farmer’s market. is now able to welcome pedestrians with its upmarket mix of streetlamps, cobblestones, warehouses beautifully renovated or converted into lofts, modern apartment towers, marinas, pubs, and casual restaurants. Sint Felix Parkhuis right in the renovated 1860’s vintage Felix bulk warehouse hosting the municipal and port archives stands out when viewed from the MAS Museum or from the quays nearby, its trussed glass roof spans a narrow gallery splitting the building in two down the middle. This city that owes so much of its illustrious history to its port and maritime trade remained surprisingly disconnected from its near waterfront, the significance of the new port further North notwithstanding. The 6km long Scheldt waterfront as a public decompression zone became somewhat of an obsession, an idee fixe, for the city’s infrastructure planning elite, a host of international landscape architect studios, and for the people of Antwerp. The oldest structure in the city, Het Steen fortress opposite the center and nearby park, provides an anchor and some depth of perspective for joggers and picture takers but the riverfront could benefit from so much more public art, usable space, landscaping, and street furniture.
Saturday offers the best scope for exploring both the historic center and checking out the Zuid district with some of Antwerp’s best museums and museum book stores – the permanent collection of the Rubens-rich Royal Museum of Fine Arts, currently closed for renovation until 2019, the temporary exhibits in the recently expanded FOMU, the Foto Museum, or the exhibits and the cafe of M HKA, the Museum of Modern Art. Afternoon cultural activities in the area are easily followed by an enjoyable evening right here, without having to move anywhere – the Zuid offers a number of its traditional brasseries, fashionable eateries and cocktail bars around Waterpoort and along Verschansingstraat to choose from, as well as restaurant terraces around both ends of Leopold de Waelplaats, and small cafe bars on Marnixplaats, identified by its Monument Schelde Vrij, it is on the other side of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. Zuid‘s dated but welcoming and vibrant bar and lounge scene is on display along Waalsekaai, Vlaamsekaai and nearby. No single place here is truly memorable but most are convivial and offer good people watching, aside from a few fine dining destinations – Kommilfoo and l’Epicerie du Cirque stand out for culinary acclaim and presentation, the latter now complete with two satellite venues, Moss, a separate casual counter, and Palmier, a wine and beer bar, – best not to settle on one and continue moving around from place to place for a proper taste of the area.
I would stay overnight and, unless the old town pub crawl the night before – or the Zuid bar scene – prove too much, start with a jog along the Scheldt before continuing with my Sunday walk. Kloosterstraat is really the only way to go on, it is the only one that stays open on Sundays, but no way to be wrong about his choice and even if there were oher options you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Proceed down Hoogstraat from Grote Markt in the direction of the Zuid, past the second hand book and flea market on Sint-Jansvliet where it becomes Kloosterstraat, a long street cutting through the Sint-Andries district, Antwerp’s answer to NYC’s East Village and NoHo. This lively street adds distinct Soho/Nolita vibe, it is lined with antique stores, bohemian-bourgeois design shops, funky furniture stores, an occasional gallery, and vintage boutiques that offer bizarre and often well-priced items, sometimes greeting passers-by with a complementary glass of champagne outside the front door. Kloosterstraat makes for a great weekend stroll, pretty people celebrating their day off at its sidewalk terraces, the street leads past a little park with a statue to Peter the Great directly to the Vlaamsekaai hub of the Zuid and onto the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. This walk is among the things that can be left for Sunday rather than stealing from Saturday daylight, spend part of the afternoon here before heading back to the marble lined train station via the diamond district.
