Louis Delacenserie designed the terminal building, built from 1895 to 1905, and the station opened on August 11, 1905. The article calls the style eclectic. The engineer Clément Van Bogaert designed the train hall, originally iron and glass under a steel roof.
The train hall is 607 feet (185 m) long and about 144 feet (44 m) high, though one passage gives 43 meters. A vast dome tops the waiting hall, and the facade is stone-clad.
A renovation from 1998 to 2007 converted the terminus into a through station, at a cost of 765 million euros including tunnels. It now has four platform levels, the lowest about 59 feet (18 m) below street level. V-2 impacts in the Second World War left a visible wave in the roofing.
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