Rue de la Roquette

Arrondissement 11

Numbers: 1, 17, 34, 75, 143-147,151

Probably named from the 15th century after the rocket plant that used to grow extensively hilly and rocky area, it became the place where many wealthy people built homes to be close to the capital.

The Roquette prisons were opened in 1830 and finally closed in 1974

A barricade from No 1 across the road to the Rue du Faubourg St Antoine saw bloody fighting on May 26 1871 when the defending Communards were attacked by the Versaillais soldiers. Their prisoners were systematically executed.

Another barricade crossed to the Rue Neuve de Lappe from No. 34. This was one of the very first barricades set up on the morning of March 18. In total 78 barricades were constructed in just the 11th arrondissement during the Commune.

Paul Verlaine lived with his mother on the 5th floor of No 17 from 1883 to 1896, writing ‘The accursed poets’ there, first published in 1884 and then extended in 1888. In it he called the tribe of poets ‘the race that will always be cursed by the powerful ones of the earth‘.

The office of the Federation of French Workers’ Theatre was based at No 75 in 1931. It saw itself as a propaganda tool for the French Communist Party and its trade union organisation, the CGTU.

The Little Roquette Prison at Nos 143-147 was initially for young prisoners and became a women’s prison in 1932 . Outside its walls four of the Commune’s hostages were executed on May 27 1871. Later, after the suppression of the Commune this was where hundreds of young Communards taken to the prison were then executed.

On 25 February 1961 six Algerian and French supporters of the FLN escaped from the Little Roquette during the Algerian War. The escape was organised by Michel Pablo, the Greek Trotskyist who spent most of his life in France.

Hubertine Auclert, the editor of the Womens’ Suffrage Society paper, La Citoyenne, lived at No. 151 from 1892 to 1914.