The Street with a Rich and a Poor Side

Look around you. The streets of Sint-Andries have more layers than you might expect from a quiet neighborhood a stone's throw from Antwerp's Grand Market. In the 19th century, this was one of the most densely packed working-class districts in the city. 

Writers described its residents as dock workers, street vendors, errand runners, and craftsmen, people who built their lives around the nearby harbor. Families of 10 or more crammed into a single room in crumbling, unhealthy houses. And yet, neighbors knew each other's joys and sorrows like a large, chaotic family. Two streets nearby once carried the remarkable names "Rich Beukelaer Street" and "Poor Beukelaer Street." 

The poor street was eventually renamed Franckenstraat, after the famous Francken family of painters who relocated here from Herentals. The Rich Beukelaer Street survives, with its curved layout and traditional facades still intact today. The neighborhood's darker alleys had equally telling names. The Lepelstraat earned a notoriously bad reputation for centuries, prompting authorities to add the name "Willem" in 1958 to soften its image.