Brussels Car-Free Day: Markets, Migration & Power

This Car-Free Sunday, let’s experience Brussels in two movements: the popular life of its markets in the morning, and the avenues of power in the afternoon.

Morning – Markets & Migration
We begin with a popular working class café breakfast spot at Time Out (Gare du Midi, 9:30). From there we walk to the Abattoirs of Anderlecht, where Sunday markets have fed Brussels since the 19th century. We continue through the Midi Market, one of Europe’s largest, where migrant communities from Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America animate the stalls with colors and sounds of global exchange, showing how post-war migration reshaped the city’s daily life.

Midday – Industry & Art Deco at La Fonderie
Next we head to La Fonderie, the Brussels Museum of Industry and Labour (12:00–13:00). Its location in Molenbeek is no coincidence: this was once the “Belgian Manchester,” a working-class industrial quarter along the canal. Here, factories and foundries forged Brussels’ modern growth — and also its class divides. Today the museum’s Heritage Days exhibition on Art Deco objects shows how industrial society spilled into daily life: decorative arts and consumer goods became accessible not only to elites but also to the wider public. It’s the perfect bridge between the city’s industrial past and its interwar culture of leisure and consumption.

Lunch at l'Imperial fish restaurant (13:00 @ Chau. de Gand 82, 1080 Molenbeek-Saint-Jean / 15 eur pp)
After lunch we will walk along Chaussée de Gand towards Étangs Noir métro station and stop for dessert with mint tea along the way.

Afternoon – From Empire to Europe
At 15:00 we gather in front of the Tram Museum in Woluwe. From there we walk down the Avenue de Tervuren, a boulevard conceived for the 1897 colonial exhibition, lined with monuments that silently recall Belgium’s imperial past. The walk takes us to Montgomery and ends in Schuman, the heart of the European project — a reminder of how Brussels evolved from colonial showcase to EU capital, from trams to cars to pedestrian avenues.

Practical details

• 🕤 Start: 9:30 at Time Out Café (Gare du Midi)
• 🥐 Breakfast + walk to Abattoirs
• 🐟 Midi Market
• 🏛️ Brussels Museum of Industry and Labour
• Lunch at fish restaurant
• 🚋 Afternoon meeting point: 15:00, Tram Museum (Avenue de Tervuren)
• 🚶 Walk to Montgomery → Schuman
• 🌆 Finish late afternoon