20.2.14

Walking along a pedestrian street, place, square...


This open passage, with some arcades, is today pedestrian. It changes names three times. Coming from the south you enter Rue Edouard VII, reach Place Edouard VII, from 1910-11, and after passing a portal you reach Square de l’Opéra-Louis-Jouvet with some slightly older buildings.


Edouard VII, of course rather Edward VII, was the son of Queen Victoria and King of the United Kingdom from 1901 until his death in 1910. His statue stands on the Place named after him since 1913.

Edward was perhaps more famous as Crown Prince, Prince of Wales, somehow personifying the fashionable, leisure elite of the end of the 19th century, the Edwardian era. (He was also known for numerous adventures.) As Prince and King he established good international relations and was referred to as a peacemaker.

The sculptor of his statue was Paul Landowski (1875-1961). This is one of his earlier works. There are a lot of other statues by Landowski to be found around Paris, a few of which you can find in some of my previous posts, e.g. here, here, here and here. He’s of course especially known for Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. 

On Place Opéra-Louis-Jouvet you can find another statue, called “Le poète chevauchant Pégase” (The poet riding Pegasus) by Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900), who also has a number of statues around Paris, see e.g. my previous posts here and here.



Along the passage(s) we can find a number of shops, bars, restaurants…



… and two theatres. “Edouard VII” opened in 1914, first as a “Kineamcolor” cinema, but it was soon converted to a live theatre, which it still is - with a cinema interruption 1931-41. Many of the leading French comedians have played here, but surprisingly also Noël Coward (in French!) and Orson Wells (2 months in 1950)! The other theatre, “Athenée-Louis-Jouvet” is a bit older. It opened in 1894. The name of Louis Jouvet, one of France’s most famous actors, was added when he took over the management 1934-51. 

8 comments:

Jeanie said...

I love these passages you've been sharing -- and how I would love to get into those theatres!

Julie said...

We have a very similar mounted statue of Edward VII in the square outside the Conservatorium of Music, here in Sydney.

I really admire your seamless use of Google-Earth snippets.

Starman said...

Passed the Athenée-Louis-Jouvet, did not enter.

Cezar and Léia said...

Bonjour Peter!
These are excellent images, the sculpture of Edward VII is wonderful and I love the architecture of this passage, those beautiful and romantic arches.
It's a very interesting article!Thanks for sharing,
hugs
Léia

claude said...

Merci pour cette visite et comme d'hab le cours d'histoire.
Je me suis aperçue que je n'avais jamais bien observé l'Observatoire.

Alain said...

Je connais bien ce passage car ce groupe d'immeubles appartenait à la Société Générale qui avait installé ici son centre administratif avant de le délocaliser à la défense. On y trouve aussi l'Olympia, qui donne sur le boulevard des Capucines.

Thérèse said...

Un beau petit bout d'histoire.

Vagabonde said...

The architecture of théatre l’Athénée-Louis Jouvet is exceptional, especially the windows over the doors. I remember seeing old movies with Louis Jouvet, among them L’Hotel du Nord, which I really liked. I enjoyed this promenade.