Zaal Milde
Around 1900 the inn ‘A la clé d'or’, kept by Hendrik Deroover, ‘Rie den Dom’, stood next to the town hall. Around 1905, on an Easter Monday, it burned out completely after an explosion when the lights were lit, and a few months later it was rebuilt. Around 1920 a large hall was added, where a monumental fairground organ filled the whole stage during the Easter fair and where films were shown every weekend in the 1920s, the ‘Cinéma Elisabeth’. After the First World War the café was called ‘Au Carabinier de l'Yser’, later ‘Café du Centre’. In 1937 Deroover sold everything to Jules Milde; since 1927 it has been the home of the Royal Brass Band, and after a complete renovation in 1974 it is again called Zaal Milde.
In Sint-Cornelius
At the corner of the market square and the Kerkstraat stood one of the oldest inns of the area. The oldest part probably dated from 1738, and by around 1775 the whole was finished, with walls of Diegem sandstone up to a metre thick and four attics. The signboard showed Saint Cornelius pouring coffee; when it was taken down, parish priest Mertens said it was ‘the finest thing’ to be seen in the café. Locally the inn was called ‘Bij Moenssens’, after an innkeeper Moens around 1790. On the first Tuesday of the month the café was overrun by pilgrims, who got through baskets of rolls and boiled eggs. After the Second World War the building deteriorated, and in 1971 it was demolished.
Vanished houses and names
Behind the church stood the farmstead ‘Het Paleis’ (the Palace), mentioned from 1602 and sold in 1721; nothing of the building itself remains. At the bend of the old Haachtsesteenweg stood the house ‘De Helle’ (Hell), which passed to the poor table in 1514. Old postcards and registers preserve many inn names: ‘In 't Zavelken’, ‘In de volle Pot’, ‘In de Pomp’, ‘In 't Wit Paard’, ‘Café du Tram’ at the tram stop, ‘Bij de Kiek’ in Diegem-Hoek, ‘In de Kroon’, ‘Plezante Hoek’ kept by a conjurer, ‘In de zoeten Inval’ and ‘In de 2 Sleutels’. In 1957 Diegem still had 35 pubs.
From Bagatelle to Koinonia
Around 1935 the ‘Dames de Marie’ bought the neglected little castle ‘Bagatelle’ in the Groenstraat and named it ‘Madonna’. In 1939-1940 it was occupied in turn by Belgian, British and German soldiers; the Germans felled more than a hundred trees and pulled down the upper floor to have a lookout post near the airfields of Evere and Melsbroek. After the war it became a holiday home for sisters, and later a retreat centre called ‘Koinonia’, Greek for community.