Workers’ Assembly Halls (Belgique)

Workers’ Assembly Halls is a transnational series that bears eloquent testimony to the development of the international democratic labour movement and its impact on societies on a universal scale. It comprises the most significant examples of a distinctive type of multifunctional building which is the most tangible expression of the cultural tradition of the international labour movement. The halls were designed and built by this movement, independent from the state, during the formative period of working-class internationalism from 1850 to 1950. They were physically, and symbolically, fundamental to the mass organisation of workers.

The social and cultural phenomenon of the international democratic labour movement was self-organisation as a response to industrialisation and industrial capitalism. It became increasingly globalised from the mid-19th century and gained significant impetus during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to serve as a platform for the establishment of both trade union and political labour movements. These movements profoundly shaped our modern world.

The distinct building typology of a workers’ assembly hall is recognisable by its architectural form and function. Foremost, multifunctionality and the ability to accommodate large groups of people were central to the success of mass organisation, while high-quality and imposing architecture was used to reflect national and period styles and to instil pride and belonging. The halls were strategically placed in industrialised centres. A large and commonly ornate main hall provided for assemblies, political meetings, and communal events. Additional facilities typically included kitchens and communal dining rooms, educational classrooms for workers and their families, libraries and reading rooms, and numerous offices for trade unions and workers’ clubs accessed on multiple storeys via staircases and hallways. Some were international models.

The multifunctional workers’ assembly hall was part of the daily lives of the working class in Europe, Australia, the Americas and with examples in Africa and Asia, and lay at the centre of their collective political, social, educational, and cultural activity. Core values of equality and democracy, community and solidarity, welfare, identity, and belonging empowered workers to unite and improve all aspects of life.

Criterion (iii): Workers’ Assembly Halls bear exceptional testimony to the cultural tradition of the international democratic labour movement, which flourished during the formative period of working-class internationalism from 1850 to 1950. A group of the most significant assembly halls are some of the most tangible monuments to the development of the labour movement and its universality.

The buildings bear testimony to the establishment and development of the international democratic labour movement as a political, social, and cultural framework for the lives of workers. As sites for a multitude of activities and the daily workings of associations, the buildings both concretely and symbolically testify to how the international democratic labour movement offered a community and a new identity to millions of people uprooted by processes of industrialisation. Central aspects of the cultural tradition of the international democratic labour movement are:

• The expression of a universal longing for emancipation, belonging, and dignity of workers through mass organisation.
• The principle of self-organisation as a central to achieving the ideals of freedom, liberty, and solidarity.
• The education and training of workers to take part in democratic dialogue.

Throughout its development, the international democratic labour movement has fought for and achieved significant rights for workers. These include the 8-hour workday, holiday bonuses, access to healthcare, labour leave, equal pay for equal work, and maternity protection. The progressive attainment of these rights by the working-class reflects the evolution of societies in relation to production systems, as well as the vital role that labour unions play in safeguarding dignified working conditions. The buildings comprising this transnational serial nomination bear living testimony to the struggles of workers for labour rights and the ongoing defence of these rights to enhance the quality of life for workers.

Criterion (iv): Workers’ Assembly Halls are an outstanding example of a type of building which illustrates a significant stage in human history, that of the international mass organisation of workers by labour movements, independent of the state, from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. These multifunctional buildings were central to the establishment of both trade union and political labour movements that profoundly shaped democracy, welfare, and workers’ rights.

These buildings bear physical testimony to the main features of organisational and identity-shaping efforts of the globally distributed international democratic labour movement in the context of the dramatic and unprecedented processes of industrialisation, population increase, and urbanisation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These were:

• Collectivism and multifunctionality in both physical and immaterial terms as central to the success of mass organisation.
• The importance of self-governed physical meeting-places as central to identity building among workers.
• Presence in industrial centres and central in working-class cultural landscape.
• The emergence of a type of building and the need to claim space. 

Criterion (vi): Workers’ Assembly Halls is directly and tangibly associated with ideas, events, achievements, and living traditions of the international democratic labour movement and its outstanding universality across continents. The human rights of workers to freely associate and organise, the development of trade unions and labour political parties, the 8-hour day movement, and May Day celebrations, are examples that are joined by others.

Workers’ Assembly Halls are of outstanding universal significance for their manifest association with and architectural reflection of central ideas and beliefs about the path to popular emancipation, welfare, and justice for workers promoted by the labour movement on a global scale. Established around the call for unity among workers, they embody ideas about social relations and the conditions of wage labour highly influential on the development of societies across the world. These included:

• The idea of workers as a particular class in society defined by the relationship between capital and labour, reflected in the construction of assembly buildings as whole-of-life environments.
• The belief in formal organisation and formal democratic institutions as a pre-requisite for the emancipation of workers, reflected in the flexible and multifunctional layout of assembly buildings.
• The transformational influence of mass organisation of the international democratic labour movement on societies.
• Events in Workers’ Assembly Halls and effect on society and the cultural expression of the working-class heritage.

Authenticity: Workers’ Assembly Halls have high authenticity overall, especially regarding form and design, material, substance, use and function. Buildings have been extended and modified to accommodate core functions associated with the contemporary evolution of the labour movement and its changing needs, while still retaining substantial original form and architectural detail. Some halls retain their original function while others have assumed compatible cultural functions, continuing important parts of the original role of the building.

Feestlokaal Vooruit remains in a very authentic state of conservation and continues to be celebrated as an iconic landmark in Ghent’s cityscape. Since its inception in 1914, it has functioned as a gathering space, café, and cultural venue, staying true to its original purpose. Its five main event halls – the Theatre Hall, Concert Hall, Dome Hall, Dance Studio, and Ballroom – are still well-preserved and actively in use.

Feestlokaal Vooruit is currently undergoing an extensive renovation and restoration campaign scheduled for completion in 2035. The goal is to execute necessary restorations while enhancing the building’s accessibility, sustainability, safety, and functionality. As a protected monument (1983), all works are carefully planned and executed to respect and uphold the building’s historical and cultural significance.  

Integrity: Workers’ Assembly Halls comprises a series of monuments that constitute a single property that fulfils the overall condition of integrity. In terms of size and wholeness as a coherent group, the series contains the most significant examples of workers’ assembly halls, worldwide, that are the most tangible expression of the cultural tradition of the international democratic labour movement and its global spread. The halls span the formative period of working-class internationalism from 1850 to 1950 and contain all cultural and architectural attributes necessary to convey proposed Outstanding Universal Value. There are no extant threats from development or neglect.

Some additional workers’ assembly halls, as revealed in comparative analysis, may have the potential to enhance specific aspects of integrity of the overall series, especially in terms of history of the international democratic labour movement, its geo-cultural reach, other aspects of internationalism, and variations in architectural form, function, and style. States parties that collaborated on their shared Tentative List entries welcome other States Parties that wish to consider the possibility of joining an incremental serial transnational nomination.

Over the decades, Feestlokaal Vooruit has undergone several phases of renovation and restoration, reflecting both its intense usage and the evolving functions of the building. Notable modifications include the extension with a department store in 1953 on the north side of the rear building, the removal of some glass domes to improve acoustics, and the extension of the café with an outdoor terrace atop of a covered biking stand. However, the integrity of Feestlokaal Vooruit and its organizational structure in particular remains largely intact. Its remarkable ‘beehive structure’ – designed to serve multiple functions – continues to reflect its original purpose. With numerous small meeting rooms and large event halls, Feestlokaal Vooruit accommodates the daily activities of social and cultural organizations while hosting concerts and cultural events of all scales.

Component parts have been selected as the most authentic and integral examples of workers’ assembly halls, nationally and internationally, with special consideration of the contribution that each component part is able to make to the series as a whole and thus overall integrity.

Feestlokaal Vooruit in Ghent is the largest and most majestic workers’ assembly hall still remaining in Belgium. Its sheer size, striking architecture, and ornate decorations earned it the well-deserved nickname ‘Workers’ Palace’. Feestlokaal Vooruit is an example of a workers' assembly hall established by a cooperative movement, underscoring the pivotal role cooperatives played in advancing the democratic labour movement. In fact, the success of Ghent’s Vooruit cooperative extended far beyond Belgium, building a strong international reputation.

What makes Feestlokaal Vooruit even more exceptional is its continued use as a renowned arts institution. From its inception, the building was designed to democratize culture and education - values that remain at the heart of its purpose to this day. 

Today, Feestlokaal Vooruit is the only surviving building of its scale that serves as a reminder of Belgium’s once-dense network of workers’ assembly halls in the early 20^th century – following the disappearance of grand workers’ assembly halls in Charleroi and particularly Victor Horta’s ‘Maison du Peuple’ in Brussel, to name but two.