See Homepage.

This page: Many old vehicles driving up and down a high street in mainland Europe.

A cobbled street, possibly in Belgium.

There is a note on the back of this photograph, that either says "Knackes Boulevard" or maybe "Knaekes Boulevard", but I can find neither so the mystery remains as to where this street scene was photographed. One possible clue is the shop visible on the left. The sign says both 'Apotheek' and 'Pharmacie', which suggests that this could well be in Belgium. Another clue is the brewer's dray, or beer lorry, driving along with 'Aigle Pils' on the side, this being a Belgian brew by all accounts.

A number of early 50s vehicles are visible, negotiating the undulating cobbled road surface. The beer truck is an early 1950s Ford V8, a product, like many of the vehicles in shot, of the American automobile industry. At least one old Opel and a split window VW Beetle are also visible. I wonder what the chap in the kiosk does exactly? judging by the attire and lack of leaves on the trees, this was a winter's scene.

A high street possible in Belgium

Xavier from Brussels has been having a close look at this photograph, trying to establish which town is shown...

"I tried to figure out more precisely but couldn't. The higher resolution helps but still leaves much for guessing. The only writings i could recognize were:

"Pharmacie du Centre" / "Apotheek" (on the left)
"Coiffeur Franz (?)" (barber "Franz", a little further)
"Restaurant" (on the right side)

The clearly bilingual writings in French & Dutch made me think about Brussels first (including what seems to be a tramway terminus in the middle of the street). But with the new picture, the appearance of the typically flemish name "Franz" of the barber could meanwhile point to a flemish city like Ghent or Antwerp, where bilinguism was quite widespread by then.

On the other hand, there is still a "Pharmacie du centre" in one of the main streets of downtown Brussels nowadays (Bd Anspach where tramway lines used to be found) but the building that hosts it now is a modern one, giving no clues about what it would have looked like at that time..."

Return to the old transport photos - Page 5.

Custom Search

Old Classic Car (C) R. Jones 2023. Content not to be reproduced elsewhere.

Website by ableweb.