Living in La Bascule or Le Châtelain

Between Ixelles and Uccle, around chaussée de Waterloo and place du Châtelain: a sought-after neighbourhood, quieter and more expensive, with no metro but with tram 7 straight to the ULB. The Bois de la Cambre is right nearby.

The neighbourhood

La Bascule is a neighbourhood of Uccle, on the Ixelles border, around the crossing of chaussée de Vleurgat and chaussée de Waterloo and the top of rue Vanderkindere: shops, art galleries and the shopping centre that bears its name. Right next door, on the Ixelles side, place du Châtelain and its restaurants form an upmarket neighbourhood, very lively on Wednesday evenings with its market, back on the renovated square since early 2025.

Rents here are among the highest in Brussels. In return, residential streets quieter than the centre, and the Bois de la Cambre and the abbey gardens a stone's throw away.

Getting around

• No metro, but trams: tram 7 leaves from La Bascule and reaches Buyl in three stops, six minutes on foot from the Solbosch, then continues towards Etterbeek station, the VUB and Montgomery, for metro line 1 towards Woluwe.
• Trams 8 and 93, at the Legrand stop, go down to avenue Louise and metro lines 2 and 6; the 8 also goes as far as the ULB stop.
• Trams 4 and 92, at Vanderkindere, go down to Porte de Hal and to Louise. Until spring 2027, the works on place Bara cut the trams between Porte de Hal and Gare du Midi: for the Midi and the centre, change to metro line 2 or 6.
• Bus 38 links La Bascule to Flagey and Gare Centrale.
• By car, chaussée de Waterloo is often congested and parking spaces are rare.

Schools nearby

Two art schools are in the neighbourhood: ERG, the École de recherche graphique, on rue du Page, and La Cambre, the École nationale supérieure des arts visuels, in the Abbaye de la Cambre. The ULB's Solbosch is a few tram stops away.

Housing

The offer is more limited, with a notable share of rooms in the owner's home, alongside flatshares and kots.

For whom?

A good choice if you study at La Cambre, at ERG or at the Solbosch, if you are looking for a quieter, greener neighbourhood, and if your budget can follow.

Less suited if your budget is tight, or if you want to live in the middle of student life, which happens rather at the Cimetière d'Ixelles.

Torn between this and another neighbourhood? Compare them in Where to search.