The Goutte d'Or and the Polonceau streets during the interwar period

The Goutte d'Or street is well-known; it exemplifies what a slummy street was, from Zola's time to 1940. When scrutinising the social structures of this and another street during the interwar period, one tries to explain why this part of Paris became after 1945 a kind of Algerian town within the city. Evidences from the censuses of 1926 1931 and 1936 give the picture of two very populous and busy streets, with many shopkeepers, a huge number of drinking shops, and a lot of lodgings for bachelors or couples without children. Here, people are workers rather in traditional trades than in modem factories. Due to the kind of housing, the family structures are characterised by a low proportion of married persons, very low numbers of children and high numbers of male bachelors. These are streets for immigrant workers, although mainly from French countryside. People from oversees are but a minority, and, among this minority, people from Algeria are still another minority. The family structures of immigrants from abroad are not dissimilar with that of immigrants from France. This is not the story of an emergent ghetto. However, the lessening values of the estates and the rents, the worsening level of comfort and hygiene, the lour purchase power of the inhabitants created the conditions for a switch from typical working-class streets to a kind of reserve for immigrants from Northern Africa.