On 4 May 1929, a girl called Audrey Kathleen van Heemstra Ruston was born at Rue Keyenveld 48 in Brussels.
She spent the first four years of her life in this grand Ixelles town house. Her mother Ella van Heemstra was a Dutch baroness who had grown up in a huge country house with more than 50 rooms.
Her father Joseph Hepburn-Ruston was a handsome British banker who managed the Brussels branch of the Bank of England. But it was not a happy childhood. Her parents quarrelled constantly in this grand Brussels house. Finally her father left the family just before war was declared.
Audrey only lived in this street for four years. Her mother then sent her to boarding school in England. When war was declared, she took Audrey to the Netherlands, which was then neutral. It was a bad decision. Audrey spent the next four years living in Arnhem under Nazi rule.
Earlier this year, a small park in Rue Keyenveld was named Parc Audrey Hepburn. A bronze bust of the actress was unveiled here exactly 93 years after she was born in a house down the road.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
