Belgium · Flanders · Gent
Waalse Krook, Gent — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Waalse Krook curves with the Scheldt in central Gent, a quarter of old tanners' lanes where De Krook and the Wintercircus stand.
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Where to stay in Waalse Krook
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Waalse Krook works as a library and theatre quarter of Gent rather than a lodging one, and its short streets front houses, a stage door and a reading room rather than reception desks. Korianderstraat still carries workers' cottages. If you want De Krook and the Wintercircus at the end of your street, take a room in the surrounding centre of Gent and walk in across the Miriam Makebaplein, minutes from the Lammerstraat.
Few places to stay in Waalse Krook — most visitors book in Gent nearby.
About Waalse Krook
What are the main landmarks in Waalse Krook?
Waalse Krook holds four buildings worth the walk, and each of them stands within a few hundred paces of the Miriam Makebaplein, the deck that carries the square out over the water. De Krook opened there on 10 March 2017 with four floors of reading rooms above the quay, a design by RCR Arquitectes with Coussée & Goris. The Wintercircus keeps the steel dome of its 1923 rebuild above the old ring.
Ghislain Mahy parked cars in it. The Minardschouwburg shows a plastered neoclassical front to the Romain Deconinckplein, with the Marimain, the theatre cafe Romain Deconinck kept, in the same protected block.
What is the history of Waalse Krook?
Tanners worked this bend of the Scheldt through the Middle Ages, and two street names still carry them: Grote Huidevettershoek, and the Kleine Huidevettershoek that is now the Platteberg. A dig in 2012 found their vats. Industry took the ground from the end of the 18th century, and the Katoenspinnerij De Gandt-Vander Schueren went up on the Korianderstraat in 1839 to a design by J. Migom, with a flax wing added in 1841.
Louis Minard built his theatre here in 1846. Waalse Krook was only named in 1943, after the Walloon skippers who unloaded coal from the Hainaut pits at this bend.
Where is Waalse Krook?
Waalse Krook fills the inside of a Scheldt bend in Gent, with Walpoortstraat to the west, Lammerstraat to the south, and the Kuiperskaai across the water east.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in Waalse Krook?
Waalse Krook: readers and concertgoers who want the library deck and the old circus ring at the end of the street.
Good for
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Updated September 2026