The main area is in the north of the central city, but there is activity also on several other streets of Brussels. Private prostitution is legal in Belgium, but benefitting from the prostitution of others like pimping or running a brothel is not. However there are some unofficial services that are tolerated. The area around the northern train station Gare du Nord could be considered the main Brussels red light district see map below. And the main red light street is Rue d'Aerschot.
It is the street you will be on as you exit the station. After midnight the windows and shops light up with blue and red neon lights. Girls will start to attract custommers. The nearby Rue de Brabant is filled with kebab shops, fast food shops and sex shops. Also night shops which supply tobacco, alcohol and snack foods and stay open until the morning hours.
There are street walkers to the south-east of Gare du Nord on the street called Rue des Commercants. It is the quiet side of the normally busy main street.
There are specialised sex shops and cheap clothes shops. This is one of the most expensive shopping areas of Brussels but after midnight street girls begin to stand along the footpaths in front of expensive hotels and apartment buildings.
Dressed in short skirts and high heels, they prefer to go directly to customers rather than wait in a shop window. This street is well lighted and there are a lot of people walking back to their accommodation at the end of the night so it is a bit safer here.
