Rug buying in Antwerp (centre)

Who lives here

The Jewish community of Antwerp numbers roughly 20,000 to 25,000 members, of whom around 20,000 are Haredim and around 10,000 Hasidim (2018 figures). It is traditionally concentrated in the district south of the central station, known locally as "Joods Antwerpen". Three large synagogues there are known by their addresses: Van Den Nestlei, Bouwmeesterstraat and Oostenstraat. Yiddish, French, Hebrew, English and German are all commonly spoken.

That profile rings us to sell more often than elsewhere: people move away, they inherit, they change their lives, and the rug does not follow.

The rug market

The diamond district runs around the central station along four streets: Pelikaanstraat, Rijfstraat, Hoveniersstraat and Schupstraat. 85% of the world's rough diamonds pass through this district every year. The Diamond Exchange goes back to the end of the nineteenth century, the Diamond Office was created in September 1944, and the rail link with Amsterdam existed as early as 1845. Over the past ten years or so, a large share of the wholesale trade has passed to the Indian Jain community.

That is the circuit through which a rug changes hands here. We are the direct alternative to it: no waiting, no commission, payment the same day.

The building stock

Zurenborg, straddling Antwerp and Berchem, was built between 1894 and 1906, at the height of Art Nouveau: Cogels-Osylei, Transvaalstraat and Waterloostraat form its core, with a mixture of Art Nouveau, neoclassical town houses, neo-Gothic, neo-Renaissance, neo-Greek and Tudor cottage. Many of the houses are listed. At the other extreme, on the Eilandje, the Montevideo pakhuizen were built in 1897 to the city's order by the municipal engineer Frans De Winter, in twelve months and for 331,000 francs, first for storing hides, then occupied from the 1950s by the British army — before their current conversion to housing.

It is in that building stock that the rugs we buy lie sleeping: interwar attics, formal drawing rooms, landing cupboards.