The station contained a superb fresco by Jacques D'Hondt in its main hall or salle des pas perdus (literally meaning "room of the lost steps").

[3] Perched about 10 metres (33 ft) above the ground, it offered, on three walls, an overview of the socio-cultural and folkloric life of the Mons-Borinage region.

Damaged by time, the work was replaced in May 2001, for the 75th anniversary of the SNCB, by a new fresco created by the Turkish artist Dogan Cakir, who had notably decorated the Thalys reception hall in Brussels-South railway station.

The station also contained magnificent stained glass windows, the work of Zéphyr Busine and Georges Boulmant, as well as reliefs sculpted in Soignies stone by Raoul Godfroid.

The 1952 station was definitively closed on 24 March 2013, after 61 years of existence, and was demolished at the end of June 2013 to make way for a new project signed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

The preliminary project studies, on the rail infrastructure and passenger reception aspects, highlighted a series of objectives in terms of rail transport; these include to reduce the number of sidings and goods depots in order to enhance the commercial and passenger reception potential; to free up space in order to allow the site to be crossed and the double accessibility of the station to be achieved; to standardise the length of the platforms (350 m) and their width (8.50 m) and to adapt the route of line 118 (Walloon backbone) in order to increase the speed of entry to the station.

[4] In terms of passenger reception, the aim is to improve the quality of the reception infrastructure and meet current standards for people with reduced mobility; to facilitate access to the platforms from the square and the car parks; to optimise accessibility to the station and intermodality; to link the historic centre of Mons and the Grands Prés site; to develop a car park with a minimum capacity of 800 spaces and to make the most of the land freed up in connection with the station (Charles-Quint and Gendebien boulevards).

At the end of this competition, the design of this complex was entrusted to the engineer and architect Santiago Calatrava, and in October 2006, the sketch model of this first act of the modernisation of the Mons site was made public.

The renovation was initially planned to cost €37 million in 2006 for a general development of the station site that did not include the railway infrastructure and the redevelopment of the passenger building, but which envisaged the construction of a footbridge leading to the Grands Prés - Shopping de Wallonie commercial area.

The SNCB station has a temporary passenger building made of assembled containers with ticket offices, open every day.