The building now housing the La Liniere restaurant is the result of several occupations in the Saint-Léonard district. This district, located outside the Liège city walls, became home to a convent of Recollectine sisters from Huy at the end of the 17th century. In 1695, Joseph-Clément of Bavaria laid the first stone of this establishment placed under the patronage of Saint Michael. A few years later, in 1715, the nuns obtained funding to build a wall around the cloister. In 1724, they raise funds to buy a small garden with dilapidated houses.

When it was abolished in 1799 following the French Revolution, the property included the convent, the church, the courtyard, the garden with a toilet and a school for the poor.
The property then changed hands to accommodate in 1828 a flax mill by John Cockerill. The industrialist decides to rebuild the buildings on the model of English industries, in the form of long stepped floors supported by metal columns. Ten years later, the flax mill became the Société linière de Saint-Léonard and expanded through the acquisition of neighboring buildings.

The building was restored in 1914 following a fire. While the nature of the work is not known, we know that both the interior and the exterior have undergone modifications and that the facade of Quai Saint-Léonard has been cemented.
La Linière ceased its textile activities in the 1930s. Subsequently, the premises will serve as a depot for the “Grand Bazar” before hosting a printing press between 1958 and 1984.
During the ten years that followed, La Linière was the subject of a few occasional events and a reassignment study in 1988.

In 1991, it was Jean-Pierre Quatacker, a Brussels businessman and hotel professional, who acquired the flax plant as well as two other abandoned sites forming an island to make it the Hotel Bedford. After 2 years of works, the hotel opened in May 1994. It was only recently, in 2020, that the hotel changed its brand to open its doors under the name of Mercure Liège City Centre
and welcome in 2021 a new restaurant concept under the name “La Liniere”, honoring the industrial past of the building.