Rugs in Brussels centre: buying, restoration, cleaning

The building stock

38% of the housing stock of the City of Brussels predates 1919, against 17% built after 1962 (2022 data). The centre is therefore a fabric of narrow, tall tenement houses, with rooms in enfilade and straight-flight wooden staircases: a 300 × 400 rug does not go up the stairwell, it goes up rolled and upright.

We measure the stairwell before we come: a rug that went up rolled and upright comes down the same way, without being folded or dragged over the steps. That is what settles the collection time and the number of people we send to load it for washing.

Damp and water

The vaulting over of the Senne began in February 1867 and the central boulevards (Anspach, Lemonnier, Adolphe Max, Émile Jacqmain) were opened to traffic between 1871 and 1873, after the expropriation of some 1,100 houses. Before that, the whole western half of the Pentagon — the "lower town" — flooded periodically. The river still runs underfoot: the cellars of the lower town remain the dampest in the centre.

If your cellar is in the lower town, a rolled rug takes up damp through its back and smells musty within a season. Flat washing at the workshop deals with the smell; breathable wrapping stops it coming back.

The rug market

The centre concentrates the second-hand rug trade in Brussels. The Vieux Marché on the place du Jeu de Balle, in the Marolles, is held 7 days a week from 6.00 to 14.00, on that square since 1873 (it came from the place Anneessens). 600 metres away, the Grand Sablon antiques market brings together some forty dealers on Saturday from 9.00 to 17.00 and on Sunday until 15.00, and the rue Haute / rue Blaes corridor lines up the multi-dealer galleries (Haute Antiques, about 25 exhibitors; Via Antica, more than 30), open from around 10.30.

You can try the Vieux Marché or a gallery on the rue Haute and wait for a buyer. We do the opposite: we come and look at the rug at your home, we value it and we buy it for cash, with no consignment and no commission.

Who lives here

38% of the residents of the City of Brussels are foreign nationals (2022) and the three largest groups are the French (13% of foreign nationals), the Romanians (11%) and the Moroccans (10%). It is the municipality of the Brussels Region where the North African presence is most marked — and therefore the one where the most Berber rugs and kilims brought back from home are found, alongside the Persians of the Sablon.

A Berber brought back from home, a family kilim or a Persian bought at the Sablon: these are not the same wools or the same dyes, and they are not washed in the same way. We identify the piece before putting it in water.

Collection

In the pedestrian zone, loading and unloading are only allowed between 4.00 and 11.00. Outside that window, a temporary pass from the City is needed — free, but to be applied for 72 hours in advance, with the registration plate entered. Removals are explicitly listed among the acceptable reasons.

In the pedestrian zone we load between 4.00 and 11.00. Outside that window the City pass is needed — free, but to be applied for 72 hours in advance with the registration plate: the collection of your rugs is therefore set three days ahead, not on the morning itself.

Access and parking

Since 16 August 2022, the "calmed neighbourhood" traffic plan for the Pentagon has removed through traffic (a third of the traffic was only passing through): reversed one-way streets, circulation loops, limited-access zones. You can no longer cross the centre from one side to the other, and a badly prepared collection can cost twenty minutes of detours.

Since the Pentagon traffic plan, you can no longer cross the centre from one side to the other. We work out the route in advance: a badly set rug collection means twenty minutes of detours and a loading slot lost.