ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the idea of the arcade's modernity to understand it as a shopping space. The Galeries Saint-Hubert was the first example in Brussels of a shopping space that resulted from the synergy between commercial incentive and urban redevelopment. The rage for glass-roofed shopping streets reached its highpoint in Paris around 1830, when there were no less than thirteen arcades. The Galeries replaced a plot of land comprising a myriad of less than salubrious alleyways containing hovels, cramped lock-up shops and dodgy cafes. The Parisian origins of the building type contributed to an immediate association between the Galeries and the modern city. The Galeries Saint-Hubert also shielded the urban wanderer from unwanted noise. In one of the pieces on the arcade, Le diable compared the Galeries to a shop he remembered from his hometown, somewhere in a small provincial village.
