Origins and early history

Under the reign of King Leopold II, following the covering of the river Senne (1867–1871), Brussels was remodelled with large boulevards and green avenues. The then-mayor of the City of Brussels, Jules Anspach, contributed to the transformation of the urban landscape of the capital by the realisation of thoroughfares from the North Station to the South Station, including from south to north and from west to east: the Boulevard Maurice Lemonnier/Maurice Lemonnierlaan, the Boulevard Anspach/Anspachlaan, the Boulevard Adolphe Max/Adolphe Maxlaan, and the Boulevard Émile Jacqmain/Émile Jacqmainlaan.^[2]

The Hotel Le Plaza opened its doors in 1930 on the Boulevard Adolphe Max. Soon after, prestigious guests came to stay there, and it became one of the symbols of Brussels' luxury hotel trade. In 1940, during the German occupation, the hotel was placed under the authority of the German troops and the military commander for Belgium and northern France took his quarters there. Premeditating its destruction, the Hotel Le Plaza was, exactly like the Palace of Justice, made into a booby-trap by the Germans, before the arrival of the Allied Forces. When it exploded, it killed two British Army officers: Captain George Hayton (age 32) and Major Anthony Wright (age 30), and destroyed the hotel's Winter Garden and sumptuous stained glass dome. Thankfully, the rest of the hotel was not damaged.

The song Indépendance Cha Cha was played for the first time in the hotel during the negotiations about Congolese independence from Belgium in 1960.

• Historical pictures
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  The main front
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  The lobby
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  The theatre
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  The Winter Garden

Closure, renovation and reopening

The Hotel Le Plaza was obliged, like many of its contemporaries, to close in 1976. Twenty years passed before the rebirth of the Hotel le Plaza under the impulse of its present owner, Baron van Gysel de Meise. With a view to restore the building's original purpose, while modernising its amenities, the Société de Gestion Hôtelière undertook, from February 1995, considerable renovation and furnishing works for an investment of 400 million Belgian francs. The restoration works were placed under the direction of the decorator Pierre-Yves Rochon^[3]—who was in particular in charge of the decoration of the Hôtel George-V in Paris⁠—and of Anne van Gysel.

Since 23 July 1992, the hotel has been listed as a protected monument by the Monuments and Sites Directorate of the Brussels-Capital Region.^[1]

Rooms

The Hotel Le Plaza offers 190 rooms and suites on seven floors: 109 classic rooms, 53 Deluxe rooms, 20 Prestige rooms, 4 Executive suites, 1 Plaza suite and 1 Presidential suite, which is one of the biggest in the Benelux. The rooms are amongst the largest of the city with a minimal size of 35 m² (380 sq ft). The suites, with high ceilings, are situated along large and spacious corridors.

Theatre

The theatre of the Hotel Le Plaza is a former cinema with a surface of 460 m² (5,000 sq ft), designated as a historical monument through a royal decree. It was built in 1930, in a unique Spanish–Arab–Moorish style. Under the name of Acropole Cinema, it opened in 1928 and had an interior designed in a Spanish style with many false windows and barley sugar columns. Seating was provided in stalls and balcony. At one time (possibly in the 1930s), it ran cine-variety shows.

The entrance to the cinema was located at the left-hand side of the twin-blocked building and originally had a large vertical PLAZA sign over the entrance. There was a Plaza Taverne located on the corner of the Boulevard Adolphe Max and the narrow Rue de Malines/Mechelsestraat, now the main entrance to the hotel. The rear of the building backs onto the former Variétiés theatre (Cinerama) around the corner on the Rue de Malines.

The decision was taken during the renovation to keep the original boxes, the genuine bracket-lamps, the stage, as well as the richly sculpted wall ornaments of Andalusian inspiration. It is nowadays used as a banquet hall and conference facility.

L'Estérel restaurant

The restaurant features the particularity of combining a bar and a restaurant for 48 guests. The decoration of the restaurant is very luxurious like the hotel. The particularity of this decoration is the painted ceiling of the restaurant, picturing a mainly blue sky. The menu, created by the chef Olivier Bontemps and his sous-chef Alexandre Van Kalck, varies with the seasons to guarantee fresh quality ingredients.

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  The reception
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  The lobby
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  The restaurant

Citations

Bibliography

• Eggericx, Laure (1997). Les Boulevards du Centre. Bruxelles, ville d'Art et d'Histoire (in French). Vol. 20. Brussels: Centre d'information, de Documentation et d'Etude du Patrimoine.
• L'institut dentaire George Eastman Bruxelles et quelques autres réalisations de l'architecte Michel Polak (in French), Edition d'art et de publicité "Mundus" s.a., Brussels, 1937