I recently discovered the lovely Bruciel website, which allows you not only to compare and contrast aerial photos of Brussels from decades ago to the present day, but also to look at historic streetscapes from the archive of photographs. There’s lots to explore, but my attention was particularly caught by a pair of buildings on opposite corners of the intersection where my office stands, between Rue de la Science / Wetenschapsstraat and Rue Montoyer / Montoyerstraat. These two photos are undated but both have Rue Montoyer on the right and Rue de la Science on the left.


Bruciel’s aerial photograph from the 1930s clarifies the layout, and the two blue tags mark the places from which the two photographs were taken. The buildings are those on the upper right (northeastern) and lower left (southwestern) corners of the junction.

Both buildings appear to be two-storey residential houses, in both cases with access via the gardens further along Rue de la Science. They are architecturally quite similar but far from identical – the house on the northeastern corner is significantly bigger than its southwestern counterpart, but also lacks a direct opening onto the street – presumably people went either through the garden or through the side entry. The southwestern house has a big door onto Rue Montoyer, and the garden entrance looks less formal. I note that both buildings sport large flagpoles.


The definition is not good enough to read the street signs on the two houses, but I’m pretty sure that the northeastern one has “RUE MONTOYER / MONTOYERSTR” and the southwestern “RUE / MONTOYER / STRAAT”.
The Bruciel archive’s next photos are from 1944, and the northeastern building is still there and I think that the southwestern one is too, but it’s a bit indistinct.

By 1953, however, both had been replaced by office blocks, like most of the rest of the district. The southwestern corner is now the LUCIA building at Rue de la Science 4, and the northeastern corner, Rue Montoyer 34, used to be occupied by DG JUST of the European Commission, but is currently being renovated for more office space. The only old building left at the intersection is the Armenian Embassy at Rue Montoyer 28.