A hotel building on the even side of the rue Blanche, a short street between the avenue Louise and the rue de Livourne. The Brussels heritage inventory records that this side of the street was entirely rebuilt between the 1930s and 1960, replacing the neoclassical houses of the 1870s. The building has no protection and we do not know its exact date or architect: this page sets out what is known and asks for the rest.
At a glance
The rue Blanche was drawn on the plan of the road surveyor Victor Besme and fixed by the royal decree of 20 February 1864, which laid out the Tenbosch quarter between the avenue du Bois de la Cambre and the chaussées of Waterloo and Charleroi. It received its present name in 1872, and most of its houses were built between 1869 and 1877. The odd-numbered side still keeps its row of neoclassical houses of 1869–1871. On the even side, where number 4 stands, the regional inventory notes that the plots and the height of the buildings were completely changed, and that buildings of the 1930s to 1960 replaced the original houses. Number 4 is one of them. It is today the Hotel Avenue Louise, formerly the Izan Avenue Louise.
Key facts
- Where: Rue Blanche 4, 1000 Brussels (the section of the street between the avenue Louise and the rue de Livourne belongs to the City of Brussels)
- Street: Besme plan and royal decree of 20 February 1864; named rue Blanche in 1872, formerly rue de l’Amman
- Building: one of the buildings of the 1930s to 1960 that replaced the original houses on the even side, according to the regional inventory; exact date and architect not known to us
- Protection: none; the building has no notice in the inventory of the architectural heritage of the Brussels-Capital Region
- Planning: the Brussels section of the street is covered by the special development plan for the avenue Louise and its side streets, approved by royal decree of 7 July 1970
- Current use: hotel with 80 rooms, now Hotel Avenue Louise Brussels, formerly the Izan Avenue Louise
- Coordinates: 50.830401, 4.359248 · open in Google Maps
History
The rue Blanche belongs to the Tenbosch quarter laid out in 1864. It first bore the name rue de l’Amman, after an old judicial office, and was renamed after a lawyer by the city council on 23 January 1872. It is shared today between Brussels, Saint-Gilles and Ixelles; the first stretch, numbers 1 to 13 and 2 to 12, lies in the City of Brussels.
When the street was built, its two ends on the avenue Louise were marked by two private mansions: on the even side, an eclectic town house by Émile Janlet of 1870, of which only part survives at avenue Louise 107, and opposite it number 1, by Wynand Janssens, of 1871. The odd side continued with a row of middle-class neoclassical houses, number 3 of 1870 and numbers 5 to 13 of 1869, which the inventory still recorded in 2005–2006. The even side did not survive in the same way. The inventory records that its plots were regrouped and its houses replaced by taller buildings from the 1930s to 1960, among them a building by the architect A. Varlet of 1933 at the corner of the avenue Louise; the corner of the rue de Livourne, at numbers 10–12, keeps a Beaux-Arts building of 1927 by Paul Sandelin.
Number 4 belongs to this rebuilt side, but we have not found its building permit, its date or its architect, nor when it became a hotel. It was operated by the Spanish group Izán as the Izan Avenue Louise and now operates as the Hotel Avenue Louise Brussels in the Trademark Collection by Wyndham.
What you see
We have not found a free photograph of the building, so this description follows the hotel’s own published photograph of the front. It shows a flat front of several storeys divided into horizontal bands. Every other floor carries a continuous band of dark, reflective glass panels, in front of what appear to be balconies, and the floors between them have rows of windows framed by bronze-coloured cladding. The ground floor is faced in pale stone, with a glazed entrance under a canopy lettered “Avenue Louise” and a wooden garage door at one end.
Practical information
- The building is a hotel; the interiors are for guests.
- The front can be seen from the street at any time; the neoclassical houses of 1869–1871 opposite show what the street looked like before the rebuilding.
- The building has no heritage protection.
Getting there
The rue Blanche opens off the avenue Louise a few steps from the tram stops on the avenue. Louise metro station (lines 2 and 6) is about ten minutes’ walk to the north.
Nearby
- Hôtel Otlet, Octave van Rysselberghe’s Art Nouveau house for Paul Otlet, about 100 metres to the south.
- Rue Veydt 40–42, an eclectic town house of 1911, about 160 metres to the south-west.
- Zoom Hotel, Émile Janlet’s neoclassical corner house on the rue de la Concorde, about 230 metres to the north.
- Hotel Wiltcher’s on the avenue Louise, about 240 metres to the north-west.
Do you know more?
On this page we have published what the Brussels heritage inventory records about the rue Blanche and the rebuilding of its even side. We have no photograph of the building we are free to publish, and we could not find the year number 4 was built, the name of its architect, what it was before it became a hotel, or what stood here before. If you know something — a date, the building permit, the architect, an old photograph of the street, a document, a book that mentions it — or if you can send us a photograph of the building, write to Sofia, who looks after these pages.
Write to Sofia or send a message on WhatsApp
Please start your message with the title of this page, so it reaches the right file. Every contribution is checked against independent sources before it goes on the page, and we always say where a piece of information came from.
Sources
- Brussels-Capital Region, Inventaire du patrimoine architectural, street notice «Rue Blanche» (research 2005–2006): the Besme plan and royal decree of 20 February 1864, the naming of 1872, the building dates of the odd side, the Janlet and Janssens mansions, the rebuilding of the even side from the 1930s to 1960 (A. Varlet, 1933), and the special development plan of 7 July 1970.
- Brussels-Capital Region, Inventaire du patrimoine architectural, notice «Rue de Livourne 30-32 – Rue Blanche 10-12»: Beaux-Arts building of 1927 by Paul Sandelin.
- Brussels-Capital Region, Inventaire du patrimoine architectural, notice «Avenue Louise 107-119»: the remaining part of Janlet’s mansion of 1870.
- Hotel Avenue Louise Brussels, Trademark Collection by Wyndham, official page: address and photograph of the front.
- OpenStreetMap / Nominatim: position, returned as Izan Avenue Louise, 4, Rue Blanche – Blanchestraat, Bruxelles; 80 rooms.
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