Antwerp’s resurgent docklands are thriving – here’s how to visit

From the rooftop terrace of MAS, Antwerp’s huge high-rise arts centre, you get a bird’s-eye view of the spectacular redevelopment of the city’s historic dockyard. It’s an inspiring sight – a post-industrial wasteland, now transformed into Antwerp’s most exciting district. It made me wonder: why can’t British ports be more like this?

Antwerp is Europe’s second largest port (after Rotterdam), but when mechanisation shook up the industry, it faced an existential challenge. The new container ships moved downstream, leaving behind an urban wilderness in the heart of the city. When I first came here, this dockland district was not a pleasant place to wander, especially after dark. Now it’s the most fashionable part of town.

Locals call it Eilandje (literally “little island”). Like London’s Isle of Dogs, it’s separated from the mainland by waterways. Although it’s easily accessible, linked to the city centre by numerous bridges, it feels like a place apart, and that’s a big part of its appeal. Most tourists gravitate to the old town, but locals prefer coming here.

Eilandje could have become a bland enclave of luxury flats and glitzy offices, like London’s Canary Wharf. Instead, Antwerp’s developers created a more eclectic mix: retail and creative spaces, plus a wide range of accommodation, including affordable housing.

The centrepoint of Eilandje is MAS (Museum aan de Stroom – the Museum by the Stream). An enormous monolith, 60 metres high, looms over every other building for miles around. Built of bright red sandstone, you’d think it’d be an eyesore, but in fact it’s rather beautiful. It houses several collections, everything from maritime history to ethnology, but the main attraction is the view. It’s somewhere to hang out, a trendy rendezvous.

Since it opened in 2010, MAS has been the focal point for the regeneration of Eilandje. The museum attracts a lot of visitors. Consequently, lots of shops and restaurants have opened up around it. It shows how a cultural institution can become a catalyst for economic change.

An even more dramatic building is the Havenhuis, a futuristic admin centre for the new container port. Built by the Anglo-Iraqi starchitect, Zaha Hadid, it resembles a gigantic jewel (a reference to Antwerp’s diamond trade). It opened in 2016, a few months after she died.

Snazzy landmarks like MAS and Havenhuis give Eilandje Instagram appeal, but I’m actually far more impressed by the smaller modern buildings that surround them. Wisely, Antwerp’s town planners retained a lot of Eilandje’s robust old wharfs and warehouses, and a new generation of architects have filled in the gaps in a subdued and unobtrusive style.

As the great British architect Sir David Chipperfield observed, modernist buildings can co-exist quite happily with older, more traditional structures, so long as you use the same materials and stick to the same scale. The modern buildings in Eilandje are a perfect case in point. There are a few ugly tower blocks, but most of them are subtle and attractive, the same size as their older neighbours, built of the same weathered brick.

However, Eilandje’s greatest achievement has been finding new uses for old buildings. In an old pumphouse, Johan van Dyck has founded his own craft brewery, the Antwerpse Brouw Compagnie. His signature brew is Seefbier – a creamy spicy buckwheat beer unique to Antwerp, which he’s revived here a century after it was driven out by bigger foreign brewers. You can buy bottles to take away, but this is the best place to drink it, in the rugged building where it’s made.

A short walk away, on the waterfront, is the Red Star Line Museum, devoted to the shipping company which carried millions of Europeans to a new life in America. The building is like a bridge between Eilandje past and present. Housed in the same sheds where those emigrants embarked, this immersive display is a vivid time tunnel through the long voyage from Antwerp to New York.

So how do our dockland redevelopments measure up to Antwerp? London Docklands is far too corporate, with too few independent outlets. Liverpool’s Albert Dock has some first-rate cultural attractions, but it feels rather cut off from the city centre. Ditto Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard. They’re all travelling in the right direction, but they’ve still got a long way to go.

What can Eilandje teach us? Three things. Firstly, renovated docklands need to be pedestrian-friendly. Pedestrians spend more money. Visitors want to walk around. Secondly, affordability. Set rents and rates too high and you end up with a no man’s land of soulless office blocks and boring chain stores. But the most important thing is mixed usage. You need to create a space where people can live and work and play – a place for families, not just yuppies. That requires careful planning, but Eilandje shows it can be done.

And above all, it’s terrific fun. I spent two days here this time and never set foot in the city centre. I saw some great art and ate some great food and drank a few beers and watched the world go by. And I know that when I return, there’ll be loads of new stuff to see. Antwerp’s docklands used to be a place of arrival and departure. Now it’s a destination in its own right.

Where to eat and drink

Roest is a jolly dockside restaurant serving Flemish staples like shrimp croquettes and a good range of Belgian beers. Licht der Dokken is an unpretentious pub that’s hardly changed since the old days, when dockers used to drink here. In Choc is a chic little chocolate shop run by Belgian chocolatier Tom Coosemans and his mother. They make their chocolates right here in the shop.

What to see and do

Although there’s lots to see and do in Eilandje, the rest of Antwerp has loads to offer. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts has a wonderful collection, everything from Flemish Primitives to Belgian Modernists like James Ensor. The city is renowned for fashion: visit Dries van Noten’s flagship store, Het Modepaleis.

Where to stay

The Botanic Sanctuary is a superior five-star hotel in a secluded spot right beside Antwerp’s botanical gardens. Built around a medieval monastery, it’s supremely peaceful, an oasis in the city centre. The indoor swimming pool is sublime. Doubles (room only) from €380 (£316.50).

De Witte Lelei is a four-star boutique hotel in a beautiful baroque townhouse. Doubles (room only) from around £230 (€276).

How to get there

Travel from London St Pancras with Eurostar on an Any Belgian Station ticket, from £63.50 each way. The journey to Antwerp takes three hours, including a change of trains in Brussels Midi station.

William Cook travelled as a guest of Visit Antwerp and Leading Hotels of the World. For more information about Antwerp and other Flemish cities, go to www.visitflanders.co.uk