Lounge Review: BRU Gates B Diamond Lounges (feat. ex-British Airways Galleries Lounge)

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In July, Brussels Airport opened their new own-operated The View lounge, in space adjacent to the former Diamond lounges in the non-Schengen Gates B pier of the terminal. Last September I visited the Diamond lounges for the first time (and again in November for what would, as it turned out, be my final time), and took some photos, so thought I’d still publish this review as it offers a look into what was formerly the BA Galleries lounge.

Brussels Airport operated two Diamond lounges – their original space to the right of the corridor as you walked down from the lift up from gate level, and the former BA lounge space to the left. Both retained separate receptions, and eligible passengers could use either space – with the former BA space being the larger and typically also being the quieter. The View lounge is now located at the end of this corridor.

Starting in the original Diamond lounge, from reception there was a small area to the right containing dining seating for both two and four people, along with a couple of seating nooks (one with four armchairs from the BA lounge), washrooms and showers.





Adjacent to reception was the lounge’s self-service bar and buffet, the former including bar snacks, draught beer, red and white wine, a basic selection of spirits, filtered water tap and coffee machines.



The buffet was perfectly adequate for a third party European lounge, and featured a range of salads, cheese, ham, three hot main courses with three hot accompaniments, and a selection of cakes, muffins and sweets in addition to Belgian waffles. The printed menu didn’t quite match what was actually on offer, but what was available was all quite decent, if you ignored the large quantity of fruit flies buzzing around.











The main section of the lounge featured more dining seating for both two and four people (a bit too IKEA-style for my taste) and additional semi-private dining nooks, and some slightly more comfortable café-style seating. Additional washrooms and showers were available at the end of the lounge. Views of the airfield were available from one side of the lounge.







Over in the former BA space, the bones of the original BA lounge (which closed in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic and never reopened as a BA-operated facility) had been retained, including the reception desk, island and back bars, coffee station and buffet, wooden flooring, feature walls and feature lighting. Beyond that, two BA armchairs survived either side of reception, along with some of the floor lamps from the BA days. The majority of the furniture had been changed to align the space with the original Diamond lounge, and the carpet had also been replaced. The original glass dividing screens, which had broken up the space into separate nooks, had been removed throughout the lounge, although their locations could still be readily identified by the coloured spot lights in the ceiling that used to light either side of the panels.



From reception, the lounge opened up into two equal halves. To the left, the self-serve bar, some high-top seating, lounge seating and dining tables mostly for two.









To the right, the self-serve coffee station and buffet and mostly dining seating, including in the narrow corridor linking the two halves of the lounge that ran behind the kitchen which was itself behind reception.





Aside from the draught beers, the food and drink selection was the same as that in the original Diamond lounge. The BA lounge didn’t have its own washrooms, which in the BA-operated days would’ve meant passengers using the terminal facilities near the lift up from gate level. During my visit, I used the facilities in the other Diamond lounge across the corridor. Views of the apron between Gates A and B were available along most of one side of the lounge.

The BA lounge at Brussels was the original Galleries concept lounge when it opened in 2007, pre-dating even the LHR T5 lounges. Whilst it had received some new furniture over the years (most notably when BA closed their Munich Galleries lounge in 2018 and shuffled some pieces over), it survived largely intact through to its final days as a third party facility, if one ignores the cheap furniture of those final years. The Brussels lounge was notable for testing many of the familiar features (such as the Silver Bar and Coffee House) we’ve come to associate with Galleries concept lounges introduced over the years, even if that concept has long since been replaced at new and refurbished lounges across the BA lounge network. Other features, such as the feature walls, didn’t survive the test and were never rolled out at other lounges.

If you want to see what the BA lounge used to look like, check out this review (not one of mine) from shortly after opening: https://loungeindex.com/Europe/Belgi...sels/index.htm

The Brussels Galleries lounge was certainly a piece of history, which is now sadly gone from the network.