The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
What did the British ever do for Brussels?
Quite a lot as it turns out… Marianna Hunt takes a UK-themed tour of the Belgian capital
It’s exactly two years since the Brexit referendum and our days in Brussels are numbered. It’s time to reminisce – to look to the good old days, stretching, ironically, back to Waterloo and a trail of landmarks, memories and traditions we are leaving behind. Here are 10 places where the British have left their mark on the Belgian capital.
1 PITCHED BATTLE
On a sunny June evening in 1815, preparations were under way for the battle that would end the Napoleonic wars. It was a perfect moment, then, to squeeze in a game of cricket. English soldiers were to be found at their garrison knocking balls for six on a field that is now one of Brussels’ finest urban parks, the Bois de la Cambre. This cricket match, the first ever played in Belgium, was supposedly organised by Wellington as a show of typically British nonchalance in the face of the approaching French. Belgium now has its own cricket federation and national team, though it doesn’t yet have Test-playing status.
2 BYRON’S REFUGE
Facing a broken marriage, accusations of incest and calls for his exile, Lord Byron finally abandoned England for Brussels in 1816, never to return. It’s rumoured that, on his arrival, Byron immediately stole a carriage and bedded his chambermaid. The plaque at No 51 Rue Ducale commemorates this trip. It was during his stay at Rue Ducale that Byron composed “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: Canto 3”. The stanzas were inspired by Waterloo, which Byron visited while in Belgium. Sir Walter Scott stayed in the same house when he was on a similar journey. His poem “The Field of Waterloo” was written there.
3 EDUCATING CHARLOTTE
It was at the Pensionnat Heger, Rue d’Isabelle, where Charlotte Brontë met her tutor, Constantin Heger. eger. She quickly became besotted ed with him and Heger was the inspiration iration for many of Charlotte’s male e love interests, from Monsieur ur Paul
Emanuel in Villette to Mr Rochester himself. The school was s demolished in 1909, replaced by Brussels’ ussels’ Palace of Fine Arts, but there is sa a memorial dedicated to the sisters and the Brussels Brontë Group (thebrusselsbrontegroup. ntegroup. org) organises talks and d guided tours about the Brontë connection ction to Brussels. The Royal Museums seums of Fine Arts (fine-arts-museum.be/en) .be/en) are open Tues-Sun, admission ion €8 (£7).
4 OLD ENGLAND D
An impressive tower of swirling ironwork, the Old England department nt