Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert

The Galeries opened in 1847, designed by Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer and inaugurated by Leopold I. They predate Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II by twenty years, which is the claim worth making: this is one of the earliest glazed shopping arcades in Europe, and it was built as a street rather than as a building.

Three sections run end to end for about two hundred metres, under a single iron and glass vault: the Galerie de la Reine, the Galerie du Roi and the smaller Galerie des Princes. The proportions are the point. Shops on two levels, tall arched windows, and enough height that the arcade reads as public space rather than a mall.

What is actually here

The tenancy has stayed closer to its origins than most arcades of this age. Chocolatiers, a bookshop, leather goods, a cinema, and cafés with tables set out along the passage.

Maison Dandoy at Galerie du Roi 2 is the one we send people to. The house has been baking since 1829 and its speculoos is the reason to stop: brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and cloves, pressed in carved wooden moulds. Buy the plain ones rather than the filled ones if you only try a single kind.

Getting there

The nearest bus stop is Arenberg, a few steps from the Galerie du Roi entrance, served by lines 29, 38, 48, 63, 65, 66, 71, 86 and 95. Coming by metro or train, get out at Gare Centrale and walk up; Bourse is the other metro option and brings you in from the far end.

From the apartment none of that applies. It is a short walk, and the table below has the figure.

When to go

Any weather, which is the practical case for it. The glass roof means the Galeries work as a route through the centre on a wet afternoon, and they are warmer than the surrounding streets in winter. Early evening is when the lighting does the most for the architecture.