In the 1980s Belgium was going through a transformation period. A coalition government was formed in 1981 by the Liberals and the Social Christians. The economy of the country was in bad shape, the Belgian franc was devalued, and the increase in the money supply was brought under control by cutting public services and by ending governmental subsidies to the old industries. Things began to change in the late 1980s, the Brussels-Capital Region was established, and the Belgian industry regained its competitiveness.
These fascinating color photos give a glimpse of life in 1980s Belgium.
Pretty insane how everything has disappeared.
Interesting pictures.
Everything was so clean in Brussels.
I remembered the city as filthy but see in those photos that it has become filthy. Wondered what changed so much.
There was color in the 80s ?? 😀
Too bad that there is no source or the name of the photographer. Nice pictures though!
Most of the photographs are made by “harry gruyaert” a belgian magnum photographer. An amazing use of colours.
pic33 the market square in Bruges being basically a parking lot is just crazy.
I was a kid in the eighties and I saw gilles de Binche once. Every time I see pics from that era it’s like they were everywhere all the time.
From the 50’s to the late 70’s, public planning in Brugge went absolutely crazy. Everything became about cars. Every available square was turned into a parking lot. Burg, Market, the area in front of the Stadsshouwburg, Simon Stevin, etc… all parking. They paved over much of the cobblestones and each road they could was wide enough to be two lanes by making the sidewalks super narrow. The market wasn’t just a parking lot, but also a giant 3-lane roundabout at that point (you can see the road markings in the photo).
The most insane plan they had was to pave over the entire Predikherenrei (the canal that leads from the Coupure harbour to the center of the city) and turn it into a giant street and parking. Luckily, at that point, a citizen committee was formed to protest the plans. That eventually led them to revaluate their approach to transportation in the city and walk back all this dumb car-centric shit.
One must wonder what city planners were smoking back then. Were cars really hyped as the future of transportation?
I would argue that if you look at the actions of the government (specially the flemish one), they STILL think cars are the future of transportation.
But at least local city councils are aware that sacrificing every single square meter to cars does not make for a liveable city.
I don’t think this is exclusive to Brugge. Brussels today is still full of roads with a narrow sidewalk, two way traffic and street parking on both sides. Yet when you try to change it people get up in arms.
Yeah, it was an issue across Europe. So many cities destroyed parts of their historical centers because of cars.