Old England

The Old England department store was a large retailer in central Brussels, Belgium, partially housed in a notable Art Nouveau building constructed in 1899 by Paul Saintenoy out of girded steel and glass. Today, its former buildings house the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM), founded in 1877, which forms part of the group of Royal Museums for Art and History (RMAH). Located at 2, / on the Mont des Arts/Kunstberg, the building stands next to the Place Royale/Koningsplein and in front of the Magritte Museum. It is served by Brussels Central Station and Parc/Park metro station on lines 1 and 5 of the Brussels Metro. History From 1886 onwards, the company's primary location was actually in the main building of the former Hôtel de Spangen, a complex of residences built mostly by Corneille Juste Philibert Philippe, Count of Spangen, between 1775 and 1782 on the Place Royale/Koningsplein in central Brussels. The property was eventually sold and partitioned to several different enterprises, including a hotel, and eventually the Old England company, which successively acquired more of the complex in stages in 1905, 1909, and 1911. In 1913, Old England completed renovations that demolished the 18th-century interiors in order to better accommodate its retail functions. Paul Saintenoy The building was designed by the architect Paul Saintenoy, was strongly influenced by the architecture of Victor Horta, Paul Hankar, and the rationalist architectural theories of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, also famous for his work restoring Gothic buildings. Horta and Hankar's buildings laid the groundwork for the widespread development of the style called Art Nouveau in Belgium and France. Horta's buildings in particular made free and conspicuous use of industrialised methods of construction, with steel frames and large-scale glass panels as infill, allowing for interiors to be bathed in light and in large measure dissolving the boundary between interior and exterior. This became a preferred technique for the construction of retail shop windows and department stores, to encourage the practice of window-shopping.