From a “no-man's-land” to a pleasant meeting place.
Brussels-South Station is one of Europe's most important stations. The station is the daily gateway to our city for over 60,000 people from both home and abroad.
However, the station and its surrounding area are a disgrace to our country and our city today. The public space around the station, apart from the weekly South Market, is a “no-man's-land” where no one wants to stay any longer than necessary. In recent years, no attention has been paid to the public space in the vicinity, and the district has consequently deteriorated.
Voor Vooruit.brussels, tackling the Southern District is a priority. We want to make the area a pleasant, safe, and clean part of the city where there's always something going on.
Anyone walking from the South Station towards the city centre today will walk for over 200 metres alongside a blank wall. But did you know that large unused spaces are hidden behind these walls?
Vooruit.brussels wants to finally use these spaces and give them urban functions. A skate park, cosy cafes, public toilets, a bicycle repair shop, a police station, sanitary facilities for people in precarious situations, a new music venue, a nightclub, studios for artists, .... The possibilities are endless.
The public space around the Gare du Midi is anything but inviting at the moment. For many visitors, both from home and abroad, this area is their first impression of our city and our country. It is a place that Brussels residents avoid because it has been neglected.
Vooruit.brussels proposes to transform this concrete desert into a pleasant station square. With simple interventions such as extra trees, more grass, benches, a skate park and terraces for the new spaces under the railway tracks, the entire area can be revitalised. The weekly South Market will be taken into account during the redevelopment.
Vooruit.brussels will also finally give the Fonslylaan a much-needed makeover. This street is an important missing link for cyclists between the city centre, Saint-Gilles, Forest and Uccle.
Vooruit.brussels wants to create safe, segregated cycle paths and plant more trees on Fonsylaan and Van Volxemlaan, which extends from it.
