Alisha Dempsey

2 Years ago today, after countless hours of writing and research, I finally got to visit Antwerp in the flesh.

As a teenager, I was internet friends with someone who lived just outside of Antwerp; they’d send me pictures, I’d have a Google, and I thought it was just so stunning. Cue me, at 15, looking into ways to get there, because ‘what if’. No money, no job, but I could dream, right? I started looking into the trains, because I knew even then that Europe was good for them.

That’s when I saw, for the first time, on Google Maps of all places, the absolute beauty that was Antwerp Central Station. Inside and out – I was fascinated.

Four years later, as I’m turning a short story I submitted for an assignment at Uni into an actual novel, I needed somewhere for my time-travelling, Earth obsessed main character to visit first. It honestly re-ignited a spark, and that’s how Antwerp became the main focal point for Stargazer. If I hadn’t met a boy through a My Chemical Romance fanpage as a kid, I have no idea if Stargazer would’ve even come to fruition. It was this perfect setting and my prior knowledge of the area that really helped the story blossom.

In 2023, me and my (then) boyfriend Jake were looking for somewhere to spent our Summer Holidays. We both wanted something touristy, so we settled on flying to Amsterdam and taking the train down to Belgium afterwards. Though we stayed in Belgium and mainly explored that city, I begged that we took a day trip to Antwerp, and Jake happily obliged.

Getting into the station itself was a colossal eye-opener – I realised that, for all the research I’d done, I’d only ever seen immediately inside the foyer, never where the trains actually were. It was insane to see trains on different levels within the station – in the UK they’re all on one flat approach (even in stations in London, if a train has been underground it takes a short incline until its back in line with the overground platform).

We hopped off the train from Brussels and began to make our way through Antwerp Central – my eyes fixed to the ceiling 90% of the time.

We walked out into the foyer, and I once again looked up. I had been infatuated with domed ceilings and intricate architecture since childhood; it became a personality trait when I visited Rome for the first time in 2016 and saw the inside of the Vatican and the Pantheon, but then I saw this:

Absolutely floored. No notes.

For those of you who read Stargazer, this is where I’d placed Ludivigne’s office. Of course, by 2241, the R.E.D had capitalised on the 360° view of the city and added a floor and staircase to it from inside the concourse.

Note the peacock- feather style windows mention in the book on the above photos!

“The room at the top was unlike any they’d seen – it looked unlike one you would find as part of a train station, extravagant as it may be. The whole room lacked a single solid wall – instead, there were four large window panes that overlooked the entire city, the north window facing the courtyard where Ruby and Charlie first laid their eyes upon the R.E.D headquarters.”

[Stargazer, Chapter 9]

Being able to take photos whilst I was there in person really helped me visualise and build the story in a way that I had been struggling with prior to the visit.

I managed to use one of my photos of the outside of Antwerp Central Station…

As the basis for the entrance of the R.E.D.

One of the best things I can suggest to aspiring authors (something that was passed down to me by my Uni lecturer) is to thoroughly do the research on the setting of your book, if it’s a real place. If you can visit it in person, even better. It will not only make your writing richer and more accurate, but you may also find out that The White House has a bowling alley…

I’ll leave you with this super giddy selfie I took just so I could convince myself I was actually there!

à bientôt!