1943-1986

1954 advertisement

Half way through the war, cabinet-maker Jean-Pierre Linster rented the house. The ground floor and the first floor were converted into showrooms for the furniture manufactured in workshops set a few streets further whilst the basement and the second floor continued to serve as housing quarters. The maid-servant had a room fixed up in the attic.

Not by chance did the cabinet-maker’s choice fall on Maison Autrique: he had heard of Victor Horta and rightly thought that the house offered just the right setting for his top of the range furniture products.

Over those years, the house had a double life the strands of which rarely met. To the slow rhythm of the shop section was superposed the rhythm of everyday life. Home life was most peculiar with the kitchen-basement and the second floor inhabited by the family, whilst the fine rooms of the ground and first floor were devolved to the display of furniture.

The place proved a wonderful playground for the owners’ daughter. She and her husband were to take over the running of the shop in 1975. This was the most stable period the house lived through: forty quiet years spent welcoming customers.

The Linsters left the premises 1986, to settle in its immediate neighbourhood as Maison Autrique changed hands again.