Talk:Anderlecht Gate

Belgium Low‑importance

	Belgium portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Belgium, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Belgium on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BelgiumWikipedia:WikiProject BelgiumTemplate:WikiProject BelgiumBelgium-related
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Historic sites Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Historic sites, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of historic sites on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Historic sitesWikipedia:WikiProject Historic sitesTemplate:WikiProject Historic sitesHistoric sites
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Military history: Fortifications

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history

This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion not met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

Associated task forces:
/
	Fortifications task force

This article relates to Brussels, and should follow the Brussels naming conventions.

This article was created or improved during WikiProject Europe's "European 20,000 Challenge", which started on November 1, 2016, and is ongoing. You can help out!

Octroi pavilions

Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments2 people in discussion

Hi Brigade Piron and thanks again for your edits on this article! I will follow up on your suggestion here... The problem I have is that "customs house" is not a correct translation, as it refers to the collecting of customs duties and the control of the flow of goods into and out of a country, which differs from the "octroi", i.e. the tax levied on local consumer goods (entrance fees), as you rightly pointed out. Furthermore, these small pavilions never housed the offices of a jurisdictional government, but were simple collection and/or control points. Visit Brussels uses the term "toll pavilions" (e.g. here), hence my initial edit, but I agree with you that this translation is also incorrect. "Octroi pavilions" remains, in my opinion, the safest bet. This is the term closest to the original French, and I do not find it meaningless, as it is directly linked to the target article in the same sentence. What do you think ? Jason Lagos (talk) 11:48, 10 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi Jason, a customs house is simply a place run by Customs. It is true that "customs" can mean "customs duties" (e.g. a kind of tax) but it is more correctly the government/local authority charged with administering them (and other indirect taxes like consumption taxes, excise duties, etc.) as the article explains. It certainly doesn't connote an office as in administrative headquarters. I really do think this is the best translation.

While I'm sympathetic to close translations as a rule, "octroi pavilion" is simply not meaningful in English... partly because the word "pavilion" itself is very ambiguous in English. At best, I think, you'd need "small pavilion-like building for collecting the octroi".

As you say, "toll" is definitely not the right word because they weren't collecting a fee for using a road/bridge/facility.—Brigade Piron (talk) 12:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for your quick reply, but I disagree with your analysis. See the first sentence in the article that you linked: "A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting customs duty on imported goods." A good example of that is the Custom House, City of London. The modern meaning of the word would translate in French as "office/agence des douanes". Neither of these functions correspond to Payen's pavilions... Jason Lagos (talk) 12:21, 10 April 2025 (UTC)Reply