The Antwerp district of Borgerhout has scored high in an annual ranking by Time Out, judging culture and spirit to determine just how cool a neighbourhood is.
We think all of Belgium is pretty darn cool, of course, and the international magazine Time Out agrees, at least when it comes to the hip district of Borgerhout, which has been described as the “creative heart” of Antwerp and is known to Time Out as the place “where Turkish and Moroccan grocers rub shoulders with vegan coffee bars, artist-run galleries, and leafy terraces.”
That sounds like the perfect start to a day in Antwerp: have some specialty coffee and visit a gallery in Borgerhout, then maybe go into the centre, to the KMSKA for example or to explore Antwerp’s fashion world, and then back to Borgerhout for some exotic foods and spices and maybe a terrace to end your day in style, or who knows, go to a concert in De Roma, a Borgerhout music temple that was a prestigious cinema in the 1920s.
While you’re living your best Borgerhout life, you can impress your friends or bystanders with the knowledge that the district once had a train station that was the terminus of the first Belgian train line, relaying Brussels, Mechelen and Antwerp. Now tell us that doesn’t have you thirsting for locomotion!
