File:18 June 1815 – Victory at Waterloo – Duke of Wellington's Headquarter.jpg

English: The earliest known owner of a house built on this plot end of 17th century was Paul Leroy, chaplain of the Royal Chapel of Waterloo (now Church of Saint Joseph, across the street), who sold it in 1705. The house was then pulled down and rebuilt. In the course of the 18th century, it changed hands again and was transformed anew until being bought up in 1782 by Josse Bodenghien and his spouse Catherine Ghignet who converted it into an inn, easily spoted from far away thanks to the dome of the nearby Royal Chapel.

In June 1815, the British General Staff selected the Bodenghien Inn (still property of Mrs Ghignet, by then widow) as headquarters for the Duke of Wellington in view of the impending battle. The Duke himself arrived from Brussels on Saturday 17th.

The Battle of Waterloo took up the whole Sunday 18th. By around 20:00, the ennemy was routed (the French emperor had already fled).
Lord Wellington met Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at dusk (21:30) near or at the Belle Alliance Inn, then came back to his headquarter where his aide-de-camp Colonel Alexander Gordon was laying dying. Woken up in the middle of the night by Dr John Hume who told him of Gordon’s death (03:00), Lord Wellington, shocked but composed, undertook to write his famous Waterloo Despatch (File:18 June 1815 – Victory at Waterloo – The Waterloo Despatch.jpg) to the British Government announcing the Victory of the Allied Forces – the missive that named the Battle (known as Belle Alliance in Germany (File:Berlin, Kreuzberg Denkmal – South face.jpg). At dawn (05:00), he headed for his residence at Brussels (File:18 June 1815 – Victory at Waterloo – Wellington's Residence at Brussels.jpg) where he completed the despatch by midday, and entrusted it to his aide de camp Major Henry Percy who rode off to Ostend on route to England.

After 1815, the house kept being exploited as an inn, drawing advantage on the name of the famous guest. So Charles Campbell : In the inn, or rather the public-house, they also show the bed and bedroom in which the Duke of Wellington slept the night before the battle. Early 20th c. postcards show the façade boasting, painted on the façade : In this house is to be seen the bed in which the Duke of Wellington slept the glorious night of the 18th June 1815. Later, more soberly : Au Quartier Général de Wellington".

The house was converted into a museum from 1954 onwards, enlarged in 1965 at the sole cost of United Kingdom on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Battle to display belongings of the Duke also presented by United Kingdom, and enlarged again in 1975 to create additional rooms to display memorabilia related to other countries involved in the Battle.

The former Bodenghien Inn (the name has now fallen into oblivion) is listed as Historical Monument since October 12, 1981.