The shops at the corner of Rue Le Correge  were facing Square Marguerite.

The even numbers

On the corner, in a beautiful house built by L.Govaerts, Pierrard-Lesuisse began selling wine, liqueurs and  spirits from 1901 until 1920.

Then E. Jacobs set up shop : he was a plumber-glazier and a competitor of Auguste Duchamps from no 25, although the latter was near retirement age. G. Olbrechts took on this plumber and sanitary business in 1926. He then let the establishment to the electrician F. Croisé from 1930 (and moved to no 6, on the other side of the Square, where he had a shared enterprise with J. Croisé.)

Twenty years later a laundry and dyers shop called Comneuf was set up. This was run until 1965 by Koentjes and De Coninck.

Their neighbour, Alexis Praet, a hairdresser and perfume maker, was ahead of his time making anti-dandruff treatments ! He also sold cigars.

When he died in 1920, his widow took on the hairdressing salon for five years.

In 1925, Mlle Maes, a milliner, established her business there. After her Eikelenkamp, Bourgeois and finaly Gilson (from 1933 until 1969) sold newspapers and books.

In 1992, the hairdresser Philippe Nijs opened his salon ‘Laurent Philippe’ in the same place.  

The odd numbers  

Every child of the 1950s remembers the « Bollewinkel » (a sweets shop, in fact in fact the Crèmerie moderne De Boom). For a few coins, you could buy all sorts of Belgian candy : lacets, lards, bazookas and têtes de nègre (a type of chocolate melocake). You could also buy chewing gums and sweet balls that when you sucked them they changed colour !

In 1954 this shop replaced the fishmongers, La Marinière, which had been established in 1948.

Beside this, there was a butchers’ and delicatessen shop, the Boucherie-charcuterie du Square. A delicatessen since 1902, it became a butchers’ shop under the name of Maes in 1923, Van Vreckem ran it in 1965 and De Coster from 1969 to 1999.