Bois de la Cambre

As an offshoot of the Sonian Forest during the Ancien Régime, the wooded area where the Bois de la Cambre located today belonged to La Cambre Abbey, located just north of it, and was called the Heeghde or Heegde, an Old Dutch term which could mean "seigneurial wood". In 1840, it was given its current name after the abbey.[3]

Bronze plaque[4] commemorating the 150th anniversary of the cricket match played by British troops before the Battle of Waterloo on 17 June 1815

On 17 June 1815, on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, English soldiers played a cricket match on a ground located in the area currently covered by the park. Ever since, this area has been called la Pelouse des Anglais ("The Englishmen's Lawn"),[5] although few are aware of the name. In 1965, the then British Ambassador in Belgium planted an oak tree and unveiled a bronze plaque to commemorate the 150th anniversary of this sporting and historical event.

View of the Bois de la Cambre's lake and Chalet Robinson, c. 1904

From 1846, the Brussels authorities wished to provide the city with a large wooded park and proposed a development plan for La Cambre by converting an area of 107 ha (260 acres) of the Sonian Forest. The condition was that two-thirds of the trees would be preserved and a 100 metres (330 ft) zone around the park would remain undeveloped. The decision was prompted by the popularity of the place among well-to-do walkers, who were increasingly less fond of the industrialising Allée Verte/Groendreef in northern Brussels.

The Bois de la Cambre was laid out starting in 1861 by Édouard Keilig, a German architect. His project, relating to English landscaping, was characterised by an irregularity in the plantations and roads, by alternating massifs and clearances allowing beautiful visual escapes, and by the creation of picturesque scenes. The park, property of the Belgian State since 1843, was granted through a royal decree issued on 21 April 1864 to the City of Brussels, which is responsible for its development and maintenance.[6]

In 1866, the park, largely landscaped, was open to the public and aroused considerable enthusiasm. The place quickly became a popular recreational area for the people of Brussels, comparable to the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. In addition to its many promenades, it hosted a dairy, a velodrome, a theatre, an artificial boating lake, as well as a racecourse. Queen Marie-Henriette, wife of King Leopold II, often went riding in the park. The horsemen's battle bronze sculptural group at the entrance is the work of the Anglo-Belgian sculptor Jacques de Lalaing.

With the rise of motorised traffic in the early 20th century, the Bois de la Cambre's avenues were increasingly turned into thoroughfares fragmenting the park. The park was protected as a landscape in 1976 and was designated a special protection zone within the framework of Natura 2000 in 2004. Since 1985, it has also hosted a cycling event every spring for scout groups; the 24 heures vélo du bois de la Cambre.

Nowadays, the question of the park's closure to motorised traffic is regularly raised. The main road around the lake has been closed to traffic on Saturdays and Sundays since the 1990s. In April 2012, a new mobility plan, drawn up at the request of the City of Brussels, proposed a partial closure of the park to motorists, and the requalification of the public space for cyclists and pedestrians.[7] In March 2020, traffic was temporarily banned from the park due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium. At the end of May, cars were allowed again in its northern part.[8] As of 14 December 2020, a new traffic plan has been in effect with access for cars in the northern and southern parts on weekdays, and only in the northern part on Saturdays and during school holidays. The park is car-free on Sundays.[9]

• Duquenner, Xavier (1989). Le bois de la Cambre (in French). Brussels: Self-published.