La promenade des Anglais

The Promenade des Anglais in Nice is more than just a beautiful coastal walkway, it embodies a slow but steady evolution of coastal urban planning that is as much emblematic and symbolic as it is a manifestation of the collective imagination. It remains a unique place that still echoes the famous remark of Marie Bashkirsteff in her journal of 1874: “Nice, for me, is the Promenade des Anglais”.

This ribbon of coastline stretching from the west to the east of Nice mirrors the ancient Route de France and formed a major part of the development of the urban landscape of Nice in the 19th century. It gracefully hugs the shore, forming a perfect curve between Castle Hill and Cape Antibes, with the green palm trees providing a counterpoint to the blue of the Mediterranean.

At the time, its environment met the needs of wealthy foreign winter visitors, offering them a hygienic and panoramic setting that catered to the demands of tourists seeking both attractive views and the therapeutic benefits of the climate.

In the early 19th century, the terraces of Les Ponchettes were too far from the La Croix de Marbre district, referred to as “Little London”, where the winter residences of the English nobility were built, inspired by the accounts of the Scottish physician Tobias Smollett in his 18th-century work, Travels through France and Italy.

On the left bank of the River Paillon, removed from the indigenous town, new coastal villas were built along a narrow coastal plain between the sea and the hills overlooking it.

A climatic event precipitated the creation of the Promenade. The frost that devastated the orange trees in 1822 left many workers unemployed. The Anglican vicar Lewis Way and his brother-in-law Charles Whitby launched a private fund-raising campaign, aimed at providing work for those affected by the harsh winter and enabling the English community living in the nearby New Borough to benefit from their Beach road. In 1824, this was a simple gravel path, two metres wide over several hundred metres, devoted entirely to leisurely strolls along the seafront, which replaced the old Terraces, However, this balcony over the sea was about to alter the very character of the city. Originally, the path stretched along the shoreline from the mouth of the River Paillon to the suburb of La Croix de Marbre, at the present-day Rue Meyerbeer. The product of a private and foreign initiative, owing to the large number of English lords wintering on the coast who used the path lined with lemon and orange trees in blossom the Strada del littorale of official documents quickly became known as the Camin dei Inglés. This term, derived from the Niçois dialect, shows how Nice was changing from a self-contained world to become a burgeoning cosmopolitan universe.

Nevertheless, its extension was gradual, and above all, very slow. The municipality only took responsibility for the road in 1835, and it reached the St-Philippe Valley in 1844 when the local authorities officially named it the Promenade des Anglais. If, in 1856, the Promenade had become a beautiful avenue eight metres wide, extending to Magnan, it was not until 1903, half a century later, that it finally reached the racecourse located on the banks of the River Var.

The area became a prime location for structures turned to face the sea. Here, landscaped gardens offered the British, who were sensitive to the cultural aspect of nature as expressed through the notion of landscape, an opportunity to express their creativity and talent. This is particularly evident in the relationship between the architecture and the natural environment. These holiday villas, the oldest of which is Lady Penelope Rivers’ house built in 1787, with its garden leading directly to the sea, are characteristic of the urban development of the seafront throughout the 19th century. Leading architects vied with each other to create opulent settings for their affluent clientele. The Promenade was the stage for many creations by Sébastien-Marcel Biasini. In 1869, he designed the Villa Jarry in a historicist style with neo-Gothic influences, transformed the former Villa Diesbach for Princess Souvaroff, and renovated the Villa Villemessant for the director of Le Figaro, with its collonaded rotunda, a hallmark of the prevailing architectural trend.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Promenade des Anglais became the meeting place for high society. With the arrival of the train in Nice in 1864, it gradually became a genuine “salon of Europe” where hotels, and soon luxury hotels, flourished. They became emblematic buildings in the winter capital. The Hôtel de Rome, an ancestor of the West End, and the Hôtel des Anglais were both built before Nice’s incorporation into France. The structure of the latter later changed with the addition of a neoclassical main façade extending eastwards towards the public gardens. Its colonial façade to the southeast, adorned with iron walkways overlooking the Promenade des Anglais along the entire length of the building, was an original feature. Just a few metres away, the transformation of the former Villa Robiony led to the opening of the Hôtel Westminster in 1881. This marked the tipping point that moved the meeting point for high society from the Terrasses des Ponchettes (late 18th to early 19th centuries) to the Promenade des Anglais.

The Belle Époque was the golden age of the Promenade. Costume balls and receptions were followed by musical and literary gatherings in the morning finishing at about 7 pm, opera performances in the evening at the Cercle de la Méditerranée, regattas and horse racing… The Promenade des Anglais was the place for entertainment, socialising and luxury, epitomising the very essence of the Riviera.

Built in the style of Llandudno Pier, in the main seaside resort in Wales and Brighton’s West Pier, the first version of the Casino de la Jetée Promenade was sadly destroyed by fire three days before its inauguration on 4 April 1883. In 1891, its reconstruction combined an exceptional panoramic view with the allure of gaming tables. The original seaside promenade character began to fade. However, the building became a recurring subject for many artists, including photographers and painters such as Brassaï, Matisse, and Dufy.

Two magnificent grand hotels completed the architectural layout of the Promenade just before the First World War. The Englishman Henry Ruhl remodelled the Hôtel des Anglais from top to bottom and opened a stylish and modern luxury hotel designed by Charles Dalmas: Le Ruhl. The Romanian Henri Alexandre Negrescu commissioned the construction of a luxury hotel by the architect Edouard Niermans, inaugurated on 4 January 1913. The Negresco boasted a richly ornamented neoclassical façade overlooking the Mediterranean and offered its residents the charm of a winter garden crowned with a grand rotunda.

As the end of the Belle Époque gained ground over an earlier Riviera which was becoming being replaced by the Côte d’Azur, the Promenade continued to bear witness to the shift from winter tourism to the summer season. A new luxury hotel, built in the purest Art Deco style, symbolised this transformation. Inaugurated on 10 January 1929, the Palais de la Méditerranée, a product of the investment by the American magnate Frank Jay Gould marked the arrival of a new clientele. With the American clientele, the Roaring Twenties saw a shift in preference from winter to summer stays, especially in hotels located along the shoreline.

The inter-war period raised new concerns. The utilitarian aspect began to overshadow aesthetic considerations that characterised the construction of the urban landscape in the previous century. The watchwords were road infrastructure and accessibility. As early as the start of the century, the Promenade was the first place to use tarmac for road surfaces. To accompany the boom in automobile traffic, the municipality rescaled this thoroughfare, to create the layout that is still visible today. In 1931, the inauguration of a two-lane promenade, ten metres wide and separated by a richly flowered and tree-lined central reservation, marked a complete change in the space brought about by the summer season.

The Promenade des Anglais served as a circuit for the Nice Grand Prix, created in 1932, with the route later continuing as far as the Quai des États-Unis. Crowds thronged to the Flower Battle, invented in 1876, to witness the vibrant parade, providing Henri Matisse with the opportuning to paint a series of canvases with the Bay of Angels as a backdrop.

However, the decline of the European aristocracy, and the slow disbursement of war reparations to compensate hotels that had been turned into hospitals during the conflict, combined with the 1929 crisis, greatly altered the original character of the Promenade des Anglais.

Gone were the prestigious villas adorned with gardens overlooking the sea, replaced by new types of buildings. One of the most remarkable is the Palais de la Promenade, designed by the Russian architect Georges Dikansky, which embodies the principles of the 1930s with its volumetric play, its contrasts between straight pylons and curved angles, and the great attention to the details of the railings and pergolas…

During the Second World War, the architect Kervok Arsenian created the Palais Mary at 53 Promenade des Anglais, a seven-storey structure reflecting the latest refinements of modernity. Closed in December 1942, just a month after the arrival of Italian troops, the Jetée-Promenade casino was destroyed when German forces took over, salvaging material from it for their armaments factories. In 1944, the last of its steel beams were assembled for anti-tank barriers along the coast. At the Liberation, the Promenade was faced with the daunting task of repairing the scars left by the coastal defence structures.

In a fast-growing city, developers were on the lookout for any piece of land and speculation erased much of the past. Urban development and amenities replaced the old luxury hotels and seaside villas. The proliferation of new buildings greatly transformed the appearance of the Promenade des Anglais. The modern seaside resort, the final expression of paid holidays and the prosperity of the 30-year post-war period largely destroyed the architectural heritage that bore witness to winter months in the south.

At the end of the 20th century, the destruction of the Ruhl Hotel, and the last-minute preservation of the only remaining façade of the Palais de la Méditerranée, highlighted the challenges facing heritage conservation efforts. The tragic attack on 14 July 2016 on the Promenade, which claimed 86 lives from 19 nationalities, turned a festive area into the site of a great tragedy.

The geographical space of the Promenade des Anglais remained central to the efforts that led to “Nice, the winter resort town of the Riviera” listed as a World Heritage List on 27 July 2021. It is a recognition of the picturesque setting of the Bay of Angels, the mild climate, and the unique quality of its light, in the constitution of an environment conducive to tourism accommodation, requiring a revegetation initiative aimed at enhancing the landscape. Thus, extensive requalification work began on the Promenade des Anglais in the late 2010s to restore its former glory and original purpose.

Precarious and precious, the long history of its transformations is embodied in the azure shades of the waves of its shoreline. Created in 1950, the blue chairs of the Promenade are a testament to a space that is constantly being reinvented. Here, chimaera-like illusions, sublime visions, and harsh realities join forces through time, sparking a mysterious dialogue that captivates writers, artists, and filmmakers who seek to enhance them.

Jean-Baptiste PISANO

Bibliography

• Arrigo-Schwartz Martine, 2017, Promenade des Anglais. Histoire d’un mythe, Éditions Baie des Anges, 184p.
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• Pisano Jean-Baptiste, 2011, «Les débuts de la Promenade des Anglais», dans Boyer Fréderic, Nice, le Guide sites monuments et itinéraires à thèmes, Editions Mémoires Millénaires, 112p.
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