*previous location of Marchan’ 10 before settling at Sint-Jacobsplein*

Tucked away near Sint-Jacobsplein in Ghent once stood a place that many locals still remember with a certain nostalgia: Marchand’10. The name Marchand’10 (Marchandise) — French for “merchant” — suited the place perfectly. This was never just a shop, but a world of its own. It felt more like wandering into a densely packed cabinet of curiosities. Objects were everywhere—stacked, layered, sometimes barely categorized. Furniture, small antiques, decorative pieces, and oddities filled the space from floor to ceiling. For some, it might have seemed chaotic, for others, it was precisely that sense of discovery that made the place special. Before settling at Sint-Jacobsplein, the shop had already made its mark in Baudelostraat and built a quiet reputation over the years as one of the city’s more distinctive brocante and antiques shops.

Founded in 1998 the shop became a well-known destination for collectors, dealers, and curious passersby alike. Large sofas were always occupied by a rotating cast of visitors, traders, and colourful characters. Marchand’10 had quite an iconic setting. When the large shutter was open, passersby could glimpse the entire shop from the street. Inside, to the right, usually with cigarette in hand, a glass of wine nearby, sat Peter in his small, enclosed office, keeping an eye on both his business and the life unfolding on the square outside.

Van Vlerken himself is Dutch, who spent years at sea in the merchant navy, came to Ghent “for a woman” — none other than theatre actress Vanessa Van Durme. A fitting detail in the story of a man and a place that always seemed just a little larger than life.

Peter — often referred to as “Peter the Dutchman” (Peter ‘de Hollander’) — turned seventy in 2015 and decided it was finally time to slow down. “It’s been enough,” he says simply. But retiring completely is not in his nature. Like a true brocante dealer, he continued — likely at markets such as at the Beverhoutplein and Bij Sint-Jacobs, or simply wherever there are objects to be traded and stories to be told.

Marchand’10 was more than a shop. It was a meeting place, a stage, a fragment of Ghent’s soul. It leaves behind almost no digital trace — very few photographs of the interior or exterior survive — yet it lives on vividly in the memories of those who passed through its doors.

After Marchand’10 closed, the iconic green wooden facade and its hand-painted golden geometric sans-serif letters, slightly modified rather than pulled straight from a typeface, faded from Sint-Jacobsplein. Making place for a new business - Mission Masala, an Indian restaurant with a brighter green front and bold yellow neon signs. But they left the large green shutter in the original colour, so the passersby pause for a moment, perhaps imagining Peter there with his cigarette and glass of wine, presiding over the colourful chaos that once made Marchand’10 so unforgettable.