A couple visiting Brussels from the French city of Biarritz are admiring a grandfather clock that stands out in what is mostly a sea of tat for sale.
Traders have been setting out stalls on the square, Place du Jeu de Balle, since 7am. The flea market, which takes place every day of the week, hosts piles of junk and old clothes, but also some rare and kooky finds.
A Samurai-style sword is going for €60, a mounted taxidermy deer head will set you back €100, or you can buy a working gramophone for the same price. A replica Red Army military cap will cost you €20, while an old Nokia phone – popularly dubbed a “Blockia” – is on sale for €10. Another vendor’s stall has a box of mannequin legs with women’s stockings on them. It appears he is trying to sell the stockings, but I can’t be sure the mannequin leg doesn’t come as part of the deal.
The wares are put out on pop-up tables, rugs laid on the ground, or stacked in cardboard Fyffes banana boxes. One table has several fencing swords for sale, another has a small statue of Lady Justice. There are piles of shoes, metal fixtures, candlesticks, old pipes, drills and other tools. People browsing the market sift through rows and rows of old clothes on racks. Every hour or so the sound of something being knocked off a table and smashing on the cobblestones of the square rings out.
Kadi Mohammed (70) has been selling second-hand antiques and other items at the market for 30 years. Many vendors selling furniture will bid on the contents of an apartment or garage that someone wants to clear, usually after a family member who lived there has died. The successful bidder packs the contents into a van and takes it off, later filtering through the haul for what they think they can sell on.
Mohammed says he might have as little as three minutes to size up what is inside a garage or apartment before bidding. “I’m an expert in second-hand antique,” he says. If a lot had some “beautiful pieces” there could be four or five traders bidding on it, he says. “It’s never the same.”
One woman decked out in eccentric jewellery, Aneta-Feilpova Youlianova, says she frequently comes to the market to hang out with the vendors. “This is a special place, every day it’s open. I’ve lived here 34 years, every day I come here, I love it ... It’s a good place, my place”, she says.
Another trader, Mourad, who is from Belgium and has lived in Brussels for 20 years, has been selling at the market for about three years. There have been some “crazy” items bought and sold, he says, citing a friend who picked up parts of a small aeroplane. “Today I am not selling but my colleagues are selling ... Even if it rains people come and sell.”
Mourad is sitting with another vendor having a cigarette when I approach him to chat. His friend gets up to offer me his chair, but a few minutes later comes back and informs me the price has gone up. It is now €20 to sit in the swivel chair, which seems pretty steep, so I opt to stand.
“Most of the people who work here empty houses or shops, apartments, garages, companies, and they bring over the items here to sell,” Mourad says. “Sometimes we buy things to sell, sometimes we ask for money to empty and we sell. Sometimes it’s a free exchange, which means we empty the house for free and keep the items. You can find really special things here if you are lucky, because people sometimes who sell here don’t know what they sell. Sometimes you don’t always know the worth of the things you sell.”
[ Bring cash, always haggle and other tips for buying at flea marketsOpens in new window ]
In a corner of the market the couple from Biarritz have agreed to pay €150 for the grandfather clock. There is one complication: It is too tall to fit into the back of their car. After some chin-scratching the top of the clock is carefully removed, allowing them to pack it all up into the boot, and off they go. It’s coming up to 3pm and the traders are starting to load their unsold goods into the back of moving vans. They will be back again tomorrow.