Planning the Greenspaces of Nineteenth-Century Paris by Richard S. Hopkins (review)

The narrative of Paris’ transformation during the nineteenth century, characterized by the clearing of medieval streets and the establishment of wide tree-lined boulevards, is one over which the figure of Baron Haussmann still looms large. Richard S. Hopkins’s book Planning the Greenspaces of Nineteenth-Century Paris serves as an important reminder that the development of acres of parks and gardens were also central to the project of creating a modern European capital.

The archives of the Service des Promenades et Plantations, the Parisian park service established in 1856, provide the central research material for Hopkins’s study. The service was responsible for the creation and maintenance of greenspaces in the city, from the formation of large parks such as the Bois de Boulogne to the upkeep of numerous small public squares and neighbourhood gardens located at street intersections. Hopkins’s study brings the figure of Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, chief of the Service for almost twenty years into welcome relief and demonstrates how many of the plaudits attributed to Haussmann for the “greening” of the city might, more plausibly be credited to Alphand. Hopkins uses a wide range of archival material to draw out not only the intentions of those who designed and constructed these spaces, but also the experiences of those who worked, resided, walked, or played in them.

The book addresses a number of pertinent themes. Hopkins considers the rationale for the scheme as a clear example of Saint-Simonian positivism, the application of science and technology to create a better world. This is echoed in his discussion of these places as spaces of health, liberty, agency, and leisure, all of which created a sense of communitas among users. At the same time he acknowledges the ways in which these public sites were appropriated by less respectable citizens; how criminals, prostitutes, or the homeless might be encountered in greenspaces, making visible social ills that remained largely hidden in other parts of the city. These spaces emerge as rich and complex social sites, open to and, in some ways, shaped by all. Indeed, while the park service issued rules regarding behaviour and employed ex-military men to ensure they were adhered to, Hopkins reveals how willing the administration was to accommodate the needs of the citizenry. He illustrates how the park service prioritized the health and leisure of their users above other concerns, filling in ponds to reassure local women who feared for the safety of their children playing nearby and turning off fountains during concerts so that the music might be enjoyed without distraction. Such details convey a real sense of these spaces as centres of community life and action, over which the public felt a sense of ownership.

A number of wider contextual questions hover at the edges of the text and while Hopkins’s focus clearly remains trained on the park service, his perspective on these issues would have been interesting. The reader cannot fail to wonder about the extent to which these green spaces acted as a balm to assuage the trauma of Paris’ violent past. Hopkins quotes a contemporary description of the redevelopment of the Square du Temple as an act of “cleansing,” but his own reading of the implications of turning notorious sites of collective memory, such as the gibbet at Montfaucon, into pleasure grounds would have been illuminating. In addition to helping repress difficult memories, might the creation of green space also be read as compensation for the trauma then being wrought by Haussmann’s own destructive project, a peace offering for a disoriented and displaced citizenry?

Hopkins rightly asserts that these greenspaces were intended to bolster a new sense of national pride and identity. The visual representation of these spaces would be another avenue for further investigation, as would their relation to the International Expositions Paris hosted in 1867, 1878, and 1889, events in which Alphand played an important role and which served to display the...