Workforce Housing, 17th Century Style
by Nathan Walpow
Francophile that I am (notice the new topic category above for “stuff about our daily lives”?), I’m reading a book called La Belle France: A Short History, by Alistair Horne. And I’m on the part about Henri IV, who from what I can tell was one of the better kings, and I come across this:
Henri’s original intent for his Place Royale was, rather than the quartier chic into which it evolved, to create a low-rent development that would “house the workers whom we would attract here in the greatest possible numbers, and to serve as a promenade for the citizens of the town who were most crowded in their houses.”
Truly a man before his time....
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