The Historic Kiosks of Paris, in Danger?

When it comes to discussing a new design for their city’s iconic kiosks, Parisians certainly haven’t been mincing their words. Paris City Hall is planning to replace 360 kiosks built to a design that dates back to 1860 with more modern versions, but the anger that’s been stirred since a new design was introduced may have taken them by surprise. Locals have lambasted the new design as “crappy,” resembling a “giant trashcan” or a “port-a-potty,” and an “insult to Parisian architectural culture” that is part of an alleged plan by Mayor Anne Hidalgo to blight the city’s beauty and turn it into (oh horror) a “new London.”

It’s not all that hard to understand why people are getting so worked up. Paris’s kiosks are an integral, unforgettable part of the city’s street furniture, along with its Guimard-designed Metro entrances and late 19th century Wallace Fountains. Show most people a photo of one of these kiosks—their Grecian cornices and fish scale-tiled domes somehow managing to marry elegance with eccentricity—and they’d recognize the location instantly as Paris. To some, sweeping these away seems like a plot to de-Parisianize the city, which last replaced all its kiosks 40 years ago without notably changing their design. It’s no wonder an online petition against them had gained over 35,000 signatures at time of writing.