Regulated light advertising around the Opera

More and more illuminated signs are invading the city.

They are only multicolored, scintillating, dazzling, dazzling inscriptions which blind the passerby to better extol the merits of a well-known soap, a famous elixir, a famous spa town, a brand of incomparable automobiles... and quantity of more or less estimable products.

Nothing can stop the audacity of an advertiser in need of publicity; he invades the sidewalks, disfigures the buildings, settles on the roofs from where he can conveniently taunt the crowd of onlookers astonished by the ingenuity of his advertising.

Our streets are disgraced, our brains are bursting, our eyes are crying, but what does it matter if the Orvietan can achieve success!

The Administration will intervene

Excess in everything is, however, a defect. The noisy companies that flood us with the incredible rays of their signs will soon see this to their detriment.

The prefectural administration is, in fact, determined to crack down on certain protesters who lack too much decency. It intends to enforce the regulations wherever in its power.

Thus, the Opera having just been classified, by decree of October 16, 1923, among the historic monuments, the illuminated advertising of the Place de l'Opéra and the adjacent streets will be severely regulated.

To tell the truth, the Administration could already rely on a decree of September 29, 1860 which enacted rigorous easements around our first national scene.

Under the terms of the said decree, the constructions on rue de Rouen (read rue Auber). of rue de Mogador (read rue Scribe), and rue Neuve-des-Mathurins (read rue des Mathurins) must have facades conforming to the imposed plans.

On March 12, 1868, a certain lady Thévenin, owner of buildings located at 25, rue de la Paix and 17, boulevard des Capucines, was even condemned for having refused to comply with the requirements of the decree.

In the recitals of the judgment, it is said that the Thévenin widow will have to submit to “the requirements imposed” both “for the heights” and “for the exterior decorations.” »

No more big ads

Armed with this precedent and the recent classification of the Opera as a historic monument, the municipal administration therefore intends to regulate illuminated signs over a large area, which will include Rue Auber and Rue Scribe.

All large advertisements, and in particular the one which currently dominates the corner of Rue Scribe and the boulevards, are now condemned.

The Administration is not, as one might believe, helpless in the face of delinquents. Apart from the proceedings which it can initiate, it is free to have the incriminated signs removed “manu militari”, with the authorization of the police prefect.

It is urgent to react against this debauchery of obsessive inscriptions which will end up, if we are not careful, invading even our homes.

ROBERT BOUCARD.