In order to explain the French name of the Brussels-South railway station, we can take the example of the Brussels-Luxemburg railway station. As a matter of fact, trains departing from Brussels-Luxemburg railway station in the 19th century had Luxemburg as their final destination.
The same logic applies to the origin of the name Bruxelles-Midi. Trains departing from this station had Le Midi or southern France as their final destination. The name Brussel-Zuid, as the Dutch translation of Bruxelles-Midi, was only introduced after the equality law of 1898.
In 1840, the first Brussels-South railway station called Station des Bogards was built where the place Rouppe is currently situated. As that station was too small to deal with the mass arrival of passengers, a new station in neo-classical style was built on the present location of the Brussels-South railway station in 1869. In tribute to the railway technology, a statue of Nikè, goddess of victory, was placed on the roof of the station.
After the construction of the North-South connection, the old station was replaced by a new one in 1949. The rail tracks on the roof of the station were connected with the Brussels-Kapellekerk station via a bridge. From the nineties onwards the station was modernized in order to meet the requirements for high-speed trains.