The impressive Glacières de Saint-Gilles was built in 1874 as an ice warehouse. Located in the Rue de la Glacière in Brussels, the industrial building originally had nine huge cellars where ice was stored.
The ice was brought here in winter from frozen lakes and kept until the summer when it was used to preserve food. But then refrigerators were invented and the industrial complex was turned into an open air swimming pool (which became an ice rink in the winter).
The building is now a creative hub with furniture restoring workshops, a pottery studio and an art school. But you can still see a couple of old horse-drawn ice carts with thick cork walls that were still in use in the 1960s.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
