This place is been on my to do list since i first saw photos of it some years back , in my mind no photo or video footage can do it any kind of justice ,you have to see with your own eyes to take in the vastness and extreme detail of the 400 year old building....

Gaining access was no joke at midnight recce to check access was a must then park up just outside the city for a few hours sleep in the car or shall i say try to sleep with the Critical NOISE Machine aka Critical Mass Snorer ..........Ok skip forward to 5am checking out the city streets looking for any sign of activity ....all clear so we made out move and gained entry made our way to the main floor and sat it out till day break ....i looked for history online but wasnt able to find any but Fritz managed to get me some from a Dutch site the translation isnt 100% so bare with it .....

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The Fair in the Belgian city of Antwerp is located in the Twelve Months Street, a smallside street of the Meir. The current building is a reconstruction from 1872. The original building, "the mother of all fairs, dated from 1531. This building is not to be confused with the Old Exchange in the Hofstraat.
The trade is in a late Brabant Gothic style by Joseph Schadde, after the fire in 1858 the fair in the ashes. Twice in the history of the stock market burned down in 1583 and in 1858.

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From the end of the fifteenth century, the importance of Bruges as an international huboff. After 1531 Antwerp took the role as a trading center of Brugge. Since the market wasdominated by Spanish and Portuguese. Beursplein in Antwerp was a rectangular square with four sides covered galleries, with regulations as in Bruges, as well as opening andclosing times.

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The Bourse of Antwerp is perhaps designed to preview the Bruges Beursplein: a public place in the open air with some canopies where one could hide. The design of the new exhibition refers to here. It is built on top of an existing street intersection in the planoriginally had no roof.

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On the initiative of Thomas Gresham, the representative of the British Crown in Antwerp,in 1565 the London Stock Exchange opened on the model of this square. It was also "thebourse", and to Queen Elizabeth after a visit on January 23, 1570 decided that the Royal Exchange had to be. [1] The Stock Exchange of Rotterdam was established by decision of the town council "to ordain a bruised or too Plaetse, daer the coop heure meetingordinary people were allowed to have been "dated January 30, 1595

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, Amsterdamfollowed 1611.
Currently the trade is deserted and neglected, when the real estate company Breevastwith the renovation of this listed building will begin is not yet clear.

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Doel

Doel is a subdivision of the municipality of Beveren in the Flemish province of Oost-Vlaanderen. It is located near the river the Scheldt, in a polder of the Waasland.

To the north of Doel one can find the Electrabel-owned Nuclear Plant Doel with 4 reactors with a total output of 2,8 GW delivering electricity to customers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

Doel is threatened with complete demolition due to the future enlargement of the harbour of Antwerp. This has seen many people having to sell their homes to the development corporation of that enlargement. Many historical buildings that will be destroyed.

Visited with Critical Mass & Host

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Thanks for looking Oldskool..........