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Rue Neuve (French) or Nieuwstraat (Dutch) is a pedestrian street in Brussels' city center. It is the second most popular shopping area in Belgium by number of shoppers, after Meir in Antwerp. It runs between Place de la Monnaie in the south and Place Charles Rogier in the north.
Map of Rue Neuve, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
The street used to be called rue Notre-Dame/Onze-Lieve-Vrouwstraat, after the Church of Our Lady of Finistere, which is now in the middle of the retail district. It has been a centre of commercial activity since at least the end of 19th century, and was known as a centre of luxury shopping early twentieth century. The street was pedestrianised in 1975.
Rue Neuve has the second highest rents of any street in Belgium, at €1,600/square metre/year. Meir in Antwerp ranks first, with 1,700 €/square metre/year. However, it has been criticised by some for being to "boring" architecturally, "uniformly 'mass market’" and lacking in independent retailers, and without variety of uses, for example with very few residents. The city of Brussels has plans to bring more residents to the street and to make it more "attractive."