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Origin and history

The electric factory of the Jemmapes quay, located at 132-134 quai de Jemmapes in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, was built between 1889 and 1895 to meet the increasing needs of electrification in the capital. The City of Paris, which is lagging behind other European cities, entrusted this project to six concessionaire companies, including the Paris Compressed Air Company (CPAC), which is responsible for feeding 800,000 inhabitants of the north-east and central districts. The installation on the Saint Martin Canal, far from the Haussmannian works, facilitated the supply of coal by barges and water for steam engines. The architect Paul Friesé, also responsible for the factory on Rue des Dames, designed a building with a metal frame and brick façade, inspired by the theories of Viollet-le-Duc.

Commissioned in 1895 on a small plot of 5,500 m2, the factory employed 300 workers in 1900 and was considered the most modern in France. However, as nuisances and technical progress made urban power plants obsolete, its operation ceased in 1914 upon the expiry of the concession. CPAC then sold the site, which was transformed into a shoe factory (1915) and then into warehouses before being bought by Clairefontaine in the 1950s. The building, registered as a historical monument in 1992, now houses the company's headquarters, without public access.

The factory architecture, in a U-shaped plane, is distinguished by its main body and two wings perpendicular to the dock, with pavilions once housing accumulators. The vertical distribution, constrained by limited space, superimposed steam machinery, generators, coal silos (70 tonnes each) and water tanks (20 m3). The chimneys have since disappeared, but the structure of red and yellow bricks, similar to that of the Menier chocolate factory in Noisiel, bears witness to the alliance between architectural art and industrial engineering of the time. The site thus illustrates the energy and urban transition from Paris to the Belle Époque.

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