Looking for a city break with a story behind its walls? In Ghent, you only have to look up. Above the Korenmarkt, a clock tower more than 50 metres tall marks the city’s former post office. Letters no longer pass through its doors, but the building has found a second life: part shopping centre, part luxury hotel.
The post office was designed by architect Louis Cloquet, who began its construction in 1898. With its pointed arches and carved stonework, mixing Neo-Gothic and Neo-Renaissance styles, it looks far older than it is.
Today, the building leads a double life. On the ground floor, the De Post shopping centre is open to everyone, with fashion, interior design and beauty shops, as well as places for breakfast, brunch or lunch.
Upstairs, 1898 The Post welcomes guests in 38 rooms overlooking the Graslei, Ghent’s historic quay on the river Leie. Opened in August 2017, the boutique hotel has since been awarded a MICHELIN Key.
Yet a hotel was never the plan. When Geert De Paepe and Greet De Paepe-Kerkstoel bought the building in 2014, they intended to turn it into four large apartments. “We fell in love with the building,” Geert De Paepe told The Brussels Times. “We looked at the rhythm of the windows and started asking architects what else we could do. And we came across the idea of a hotel.”
Turning a protected landmark into a hotel was no easy task, though: the owners discovered that floors in the building’s three towers differed by as much as 20 centimetres. The result? No two rooms are alike.
Rather than hiding the building’s past, the hotel has made it its concept. Rooms are named after the post, from the 19-square-metre Stamp rooms to the Letters, the suites and the 65-square-metre Loft. The most striking is the Tower Suite, an octagonal duplex with 360-degree views over the city.
Inside, the same idea runs through the decor. Interior designer Geraldine Dohogne mixed antique pieces with deep green walls and marble, and hung drawings by Cloquet himself on the way to the reception. On the bedside tables, vintage postcards recall the building’s first job. Wherever possible, original features such as the window frames and staircases were kept.
The story now continues next door. In September, the owners opened 1898 Porter’s House in the former caretaker’s house, which had been their own home. Its four rooms range from the 21-square-metre Porter’s Room, inspired by the building’s postal past, to an 89-square-metre family suite with a sauna on its terrace. All come with marble bathrooms, and the two largest suites have private terraces with copper ice baths. The whole house can also be booked for up to ten guests.
At a time when travel is trying to reduce its impact, giving an old landmark a new purpose might be one of the most elegant answers. And you don’t need to book a room to see it: browse the shops downstairs, then head up to The Cobbler, the hotel’s cocktail bar, for a drink overlooking St Michael’s Bridge and the Graslei.
