In fact, it was a publisher of directories who tried first as a way to make money.” So the idea of numbering houses and streets appears quite late in Paris because it was only in 1779 that things progressed. It is also linked to the invention of the metre as a universal system of measurement.” Publisher paints numbers on Paris doorsĪ more cohesive numbering system took time to establish itself, certainly compared to other countries.Īrt historian Marielle Brie, author of the Objets d’Art et d’Histoire blog, says: “In Persia, the Roman numeral system appears in 1737. “Everyone would know the distance they had to travel to their destination in the street. “There were many initiatives like this, especially during the Revolution, to number Paris or other cities. The result was that one house could be numbered 109, for example, and the next house 694, without any other properties between. “There are multiple reasons for this: cost, but above all resistance from certain local groups to anything that might homogenise the urban space (in particular the nobility, the privileged groups, who saw this as a way of being put on the same level as others).” Houses numbered by distance from junctionsĪn alternative numbering method was to measure the distance from the nearest junction. Bordeaux, one of the largest towns in the kingdom, was not numbered in 1789 (pre-Revolution). “In practice, towns numbered their houses in a very scattered way. “So a large city like Lyon had its own numbering systems (in fact, it had several in the 18th century) according to the needs of the city administration,” says Mr Denis. However, Paris and some other cities were exempt from the burden of housing the military due to a privilege bestowed by the monarch. “This was a royal edict and it is a text that is often considered the starting point for the numbering of houses in France,” says Mr Denis.īefore, houses were numbered (with chalk marks, sometimes metal plates, as in Strasbourg) to accommodate soldiers. On March 1, 1768, King Louis XV announced by decree that all houses outside of Paris were to be assigned a number to locate the soldiers residing in civilian houses (the housing of soldiers at the time was the responsibility of the towns and therefore of their inhabitants). This was an exception.” Royal edict is ‘starting point’ for nationwide numbering system “The new star-shaped streets around the circular building were given numbers. However, the residents rebelled, leading to an ordinance being issued in July 1729 stating that homeowners would have to replace any damaged or lost plaque with a stone block large enough to advertise the street name.Īn isolated urban planning operation was the construction of the Halle aux Blés (later known as the Bourse de Commerce and now an art museum) around 1768, says Mr Denis. In the late 1720s, officials in Paris announced they would be placing name plaques at the beginning and end of each street. Some remained and were printed in almanacs and guides for visitors, although this was not their original purpose. In the Paris suburbs, for example, a cadastral operation to control the expansion of the city between 17 saw numbers being used so that any new building could be easily identified. Modern history lecturer Vincent Denis, from Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne, says: “Before the Revolution, there were several numbering systems, established for census purposes or for the distribution of services (fire pumps, organisation of the militia, etc).”
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