1889 WHEN TOURISM CHANGES SCALE

Durandelle & Co, The Tenth Policeman, Gare St.-Lazare, 1889 (detail)

“The Eiffel Tower was about to be inaugurated but “Whereas in London, railway terminus hotels tended to precede the fashionable haunts of society, in Paris the reverse applied. Multiplication of railway companies in Britain intro­duced a strong degree of competition and sense of pride.

Catering for passengers and providing them with accommo­dation was a part of the railway lines identity, in a manner largely absent in the centralized and state-aided French systems, although international exhibitions in France did stimulate accommodation near to the rail­ heads from Channel and transatlantic ports…” (Elaine Denby, Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion).

The Compagnie des chemins de fer de l’Ouest broughtAmerican tourists landing in Le Havre to St Lazare station in less than six hours.

Durandelle & Co, Gare St.-Lazare, 1889, large albumen print

” … Le Grand Hotel Terminus-Saint Lazare (1889) in Paris thus terminated in time for the Exposition Universelle, which was to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution.

This happened also to be the first year of the Orient Express service through to Constantinople, probably accounting for design influence from the Terminus spreading to the Pera Palace Hotel … “

“… Juste Lisch, the architect for the Saint Lazare enterprise, was to design both railway station and a grand hotel with about 500 rooms. The idea of integrating both elements had been current in London since the Great Western Royal at Paddington station in 1854, where access on foot directly from the hotel foyer to station platform was even more convenient than that devised by Lisch in the form of a covered foot-bridge…”

“… From outside, the Terminus displays no great dis­tinction, its plain rectangular form and six storeys being dominated more by the heavy chimney stacks and pedimented former windows than by any points of architectural importance.” (Elaine Denby, Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion).

“A combination of exposed structural steel with traditional classical columns of pink granite in the entrance hall gives way to the less conventional three-storey central hall, where coupled iron stanchions support an arched gallery reached by the double staircase …”

” … The outer and inner halls provide much more interest and, like the exterior, have suffered little alteration during the hotel’s life. A combination of exposed structural steel with traditional classical columns of pink granite in the entrance hall gives way to the less conventional three-storey central hall, where coupled iron stanchions support an arched gallery reached by the double staircase.

A second gallery surmounts the first, and all was finished in Pompeian wall decoration. The eccentric mixture of styles proves very unexpected within such non-committal street fronts. Tech­nology obviously attracted the enthusiasm of the manage­ment, whose handbills waxed lyrical on the various subjects of saving time, money, trouble and fatigue because of the easy access from the station, of the rapidity of the telephone room service, and the magic of two-way switching from bed­ side and main room lights : ‘One would believe oneself in Houdinis company.’.. ” (Denby)

The 1881 freedom of the press laws were restricted after Several bombings and assassination attempts including the Terminus bomb attack. The Police, under the supervision of Alphonse Bertillon used photography, now known as a mugshot, to complete the record of individuals suspected with anarchists ideas : La Police donne un visage a l’anarchie.

Louis-Émile Durandelle (1839-1917) albumen prints of the Gare Saint-Lazare are uncommon as well as his documentation of the erection of the Eiffel Tower. Following the famous Opera Garnier construction photographs, those commissions – Eiffel Tower and Saint Lazare station and Terminus — were crowning a long and successful carrier, and in 1889 he sold the Durandelle and Delmaet company to his first assistant, Albert Chevojon (1865-1925).

These photographs are bound in a mammoth folio album containing 18 large albumen prints including 4 impressive panoramas, circa 47×80 cm. Only one other album could be traced in Musée d’Orsay collections, with 14 plates. They are not credited with the photographer’s name. One explanation is that they are already bearing both the name of the architect, Juste Lisch (1828-1910), and the name of the engineer, Emile Clerc (1827-1899). Other explanations are that the album was privately issued, and at that time the company was considering changing its name from Durandelle to Chevojon.