The building witch accommodate the Doudou Museum was once a pawnbroker's. Built in 1625 according to plans by Wenceslas Coebergher, an architect from Antwerp who was also the superintendent of these establishments under the Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella, the pawnbroker's formerly acted as a "charitable bank" by granting cash loans in exchange for loans of personal objects. Broad and built to a rectangular plan from locally made bricks, it is particularly noteworthy for its staircase, which is one of the oldest straight staircases known in Mons.
The building was restored in 1930 and then more recently, but has always retained its original carpentry. The latest works, prior to the museum's opening, will be carried out in 2014.
(c) Jean-François Berhin