The temporary Flow pool in Anderlecht.
Bart Dewaele
Once upon a time in Brussels….
This summer once again those in the capital that wish to take a dip in the openair can swim in Flow’s temporary openair pool at Biestebroek Dock next to the canal in Anderlecht. This relatively small pool is the only place in Brussels where you can swim in the openair. Things were different until around 50 years ago.
Before the first swimming pools were built in the 19th century people in Brussels cooled off in the summer by taking a dip in the city’s rivers, most notably the River Zenne that flows through the city centre.
This was far from healthy as the River Zenne in particular was little more than an open sewer. Furthermore, the uneven surface of the riverbed meant that there were cold undercurrents. This coupled with the fact that back then a lot of people had never learned to swim meant that the river claimed many lives, especially during the summer months.
The first pools
In the 19th century swimming became increasingly popular and the first swimming pools started to be built. One of the first openair pools opened in 1900 on the Slachthuizenlaan, near to the Abattoir in Anderlecht.
It was frequented mainly by working class people that lived close to the factories of Molenbeek and Anderlecht and in the Marollen area of Central Brussels. The pool was a great success. However, the water used to fill the pool was pumped up out of the nearby canal and was was anything but clean. On some days the pool looked more like a mud bath than a swimming pool. The openair pool on the Slachthuizenlaan closed in the 1930’s.
Two years later a new openair pool open just over a kilometre away in Sint-Gillis. The privately-owned Le Bac swimming pool was built on the site of an ice factory. The heat from the cooler used to produce the ice was used to heat the water at the openair pool. The Le Bac site became Brussels’ first solarium and was given the name ‘Les Bains de Schelle’.
Solariums
Solarium’s, openair pools with an area around them set aside for sunbathing were fashionable during the inter-war period. Visitors could not only swim there, but also sunbath in the fresh air. Solariums required a lot of space as they had extensive areas of lawns where visitors could spend the whole day soaking up the sun.
Brussels had two such solariums. One of these at the sport complex that was home to the football club Daring Club Brussels. Solarium Daring remained popular for over 30 years among people from both Brussels and the Flemish Brabant municipalities that surround our capital city. However, sooner or later all good things come to an end and in the 1950’s the football club decided to close the solarium and use the site for extra football pitches.
Up until the 1970’s it was still possible to swim in the openair at another solarium in Evere, in the northeast of Brussels. The Evere Solarium site that was given over to housing in the mid to late 1990’s, closed due to high maintenance costs. The closure of the Evere Solarium meant that Brussels people that wanted to swim in the openair had to look further afield.
