The IJzerenleen is according to many Mechelen residents the Champs Elysées of Mechelen. Fortunately, there are fewer cars to be seen, but there are impressive facades, nice shops and one of the oldest town halls in Flanders. In the past, a small stream flowed here between the Dijle and Koolvliet, along which a fish market took place. The IJzerenleen gets its name from the iron railings next to the stream, which are still there. However, the stream was already vaulted in the sixteenth century. The facades from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are not original but were rebuilt after a competition between architects after the destruction of the First World War.