The wooden escalators
Original 1930s and still working โ riding them is half the experience.
Quatrostein โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Trougnouf โ CC BY 4.0 ยท Urbex84 โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Ludvig14 โ CC BY-SA 4.0
About seven to ten minutes on foot one way, less by bicycle. Add time for the escalators and for standing on the left bank to photograph. The full return trip with a pause is around half an hour.
They run at set hours, with lifts used outside them. If the escalators are specifically your reason for coming, check their operating times, since taking the lift is not the same experience at all.
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A pedestrian tunnel under the river Scheldt, opened in 1933 to link central Antwerp with the left bank. It runs about five hundred and seventy metres at a depth of roughly thirty-one metres below the river. What makes it more than a passage is that it is preserved as built: the original wooden escalators of the 1930s still run, and are among the few of their kind left anywhere. Riding down them is half the experience. The tunnel itself is lined in white tile and evenly lit, and runs so perfectly straight that it looks longer than it is. Pedestrians and cyclists use it daily, so it is working infrastructure rather than a tourist sight. Coming out on the left bank gives the best view of Antwerp's historic waterfront from across the water: the cathedral, Het Steen and the whole skyline. That alone is reason enough to cross, and coming back takes minutes.
Original 1930s and still working โ riding them is half the experience.
The left bank is the only place to see the cathedral and Het Steen together.
People use it daily to get about, which is part of its appeal.
Under the Scheldt, between Sint-Jansvliet and the left bank