The Sainte-Anne urban block, adjacent to the Place du Grand Sablon in Brussels, is bounded by the rue Bodenbroek, the rue de Ruysbroeck and the rue Sainte-Anne. It is shaped like a quarter-circle, and takes in about a hectare in area. It is located in a neighbourhood that is thought to have been first constructed in the early 14^th century. At the moment when Raymond Lemaire studied it as part of a restoration project, it included houses that were constructed between the 16^th and 20^th centuries, and various other building types; the least imposing of these occupied the rue Sainte-Anne and the impasse Saint-Jacques, while hôtels de maîtres (architect-designed houses) faced the church of the Sablon. Most of these houses had been converted for commercial use on the ground floor, with apartments in the upper stories, but the habitability of these apartments was lessened by the density of construction in the interior of the block, where most of the former open space had been taken up by additions and semi-industrial structures, including the large warehouses of the ceramics maker (faience) Boch that occupied one side of the impasse Saint-Jacques. In terms of sanitation and general condition, the houses of the rue Sainte-Anne and the impasse Saint-Jacques were in Lemaire’s words “all to be placed in the category of filthy shacks”, while the houses of the rue deRuysbroeck and the rue Bodenbroek were described in this way: “The maintenance has been good but the organization and comfort are not well adapted to the current state of needs.”.

(in “Raymond Lemaire et les débuts de la rénovation urbaine à Bruxelles” by Claudine Houbart,  Urban History Review, Revue d’histoire urbaine, Vol. XLI, n°1)