Comparing Greater London to the Banlieue Parisienne

Quick walk through both cities

London and Paris are comfortably the two most visited European cities. They offer the crème de la crème of landmarks, museums, stadiums, educational institutions and more. The respective offerings of these two cities, which in turn gain them their grand reputations, are heavily concentrated in the ‘heart’ of the two cities.

In this piece, we will define the ‘heart’ of London as Central London. Officially, this is the Central Activities Zone (CAZ), which is the blue area below. It is more commonly distinguished by Londoners as where the Congestion Charge (vehicle emission tax) applies or the TFL’s (Transport for London) Zone 1. Therefore, we will define beyond the ‘heart’ of London, as Greater London. Although officially, Central London is part of the region ‘Great London’.

The ‘heart’ of Paris is simply what Parisians would call ‘Paris’ (without pronouncing the ‘s’). This is one of the 95 ‘départements’ making up Metropolitan France. It is the area enclosed by the ‘Périphérique’, a 37.5-kilometer ring road. Beyond the ‘Périphérique’, is the Banlieue Parisienne.

For context, we can see below the ‘heart’ of Paris over a map of London. Paris without its suburbs (150 kmsq) is larger than Central London, however a lot smaller than Greater London (1,500 kmsq). Paris with its suburbs (Ile-de-France) is however 8 times greater than Greater London, covering 12,000 kmsq).

Where do you live?

If you ask anyone who lives in Greater London, or Central London, where they live, they will generally respond with ‘London’. If they are being asked by a fellow Londoner, they will of course be more precise, e.g. North West London. Nevertheless, anyone within Greater London will be referred to as a ‘Londoner’ and feel part of the City. I mean, where else could they be from? They’re not from Birmingham, Manchester or any other city in England.

In Paris however, someone living outside of the ‘Périph’, would generally specify that they live in the ‘Banlieue Parisienne’ or ‘Région Parisienne’. They however, like those in Greater London, are not part of another major city (e.g. Marseille, Lyon) either. The equivalent of Greater London in Paris would be Ile-de-France, the ‘Région’ which encompasses Paris and its suburbs.

At the end of the day, the above is just definitions and different ways to divide a map. It does nevertheless tell us something about belonging, segregation and access between a city and its suburbs.

Greater London

Growing up in London, you would very rarely hear or use the term ‘Greater London’. London is very well connected and public transport is to thank for this. You can hop on a fast train in Zone 5 (Harrow & Wealdstone) and be in Zone 1 (Euston) in 14 minutes. Nevertheless, for the sake of this exercise, let’s create an imaginary ‘Périphérique’ around Central London, what happens when you step outside of it?

First and foremost, outside of the periphery is drastically more residential. As expected, the cost of living also falls. Below we can see that outside the black circle (our Périphérique), the cost of living is generally less, and reduces as a function of distance from the circle. It is important to note that less than 300K people live within the circle, out of London’s population of just under 9 million people (thus ~3%). What is also clear is that there is no absolute cut off between inside and outside the circle, there are indeed expensive residential areas outside the circle too.

Crime is also a fun and telling topic. Does the chance of an unfortunate occurrence increase once you step outside of the circle? The below knife and gun crime rates tell a story which summarises London very well. We can see the darkest shaded areas for both knife crime (Westminster) and gun crime (Southwark) are within the circle.

It is not saying that in Westminster, politicians are stabbing each other between sessions at the House of Parliament. Rather, in the context of London, we know this is saying that London has extremely contrasting areas neighbouring each other. For example, the borough of Southwark, home to the Shard, Tate Modern and many other notable establishments, also encompasses Peckham in its frontier. Sure, there has been successful efforts that have improved the situation in Peckham in recent years, nevertheless it has been home to London’s most notorious turf wars. Southwark also shares a border with the borough of Lambeth, winner of the prize of most gun crime in 2019/20.

Beyond crime, if we look at standards of living (although the two may be connected), the theme of contrasting areas neighbouring each other is continued. Almost anywhere in London you can find yourself walking on a road of impressive houses to taking an abrupt right turn into a run-down council estate. Below is an example on Rudolph Avenue, Maida Vale. This run-down council estate is 50 metres away from these classic homes where a 3-bed apartment goes for c. £2.5 million.

Banlieue Parisienne

For Paris, we don’t have to imagine a periphery, it very much exists and has a significant impact on life in and around the city. The ring road was completed in 1973 with the objective to improve traffic flow in and around the city of Paris. This periphery is a physical division between the city of Paris and its suburbs, however this division is more than just physical.

From 1945, a housing crisis followed the second world war in France. The state made significant promises to solve the housing crisis. The promises consisted of building new cities outside of Paris which would upgrade the quality of life for everyone impacted. The outcome was the construction of tower blocks (des grands ensembles), pictured below. Simply speaking, tower blocks house a great number of people in a very small space, thus a cost-effective solution. This was an upgrade for many at the time, since it was offered to those in need e.g. factory workers. The issue is that the promise of ‘new cities’ was half-kept. Housing was built, but not the necessities that a city requires alongside it, e.g. schools, hospitals and other public services.

With the introduction of low-income housing in 1950 (HLM), more and more tower blocks were built and filled. Naturally, the HLM program was offering these tower block homes to the less wealthy, often immigrants (who were incoming rapidly at the time). Consider it a vicious cycle, dump the less fortunate in housing which resembles prison blocks (broken window theory is a thing) and starve them of public services, you indeed get a rapidly deteriorating ‘cité’ (name given to tower block neighbourhoods).

Paris is home to around 2 million people, and its suburbs account for another 10 million people. A quick look at prices of a square metre in Paris and its suburbs shows singificant but expected differences. We can see that prices in Paris are 3 times as much as 3 of the other departments. It is also untrue to paint a picture that it’s the ghetto as soon you step outside the ‘Périph’. The most expensive commune in Ile-de-France is outside of Paris (Neuilly-sur-Seine). Nevertheless, there are certain areas in the Parisienne Banlieue that strongly resemble what one would imagine when they hear the word ghetto. Most people who have visited only the heart of Paris would struggle to believe that the ‘rest’ of Paris has such a different aesthetic.

London has had its fair share of tower blocks and estates in the past. Most have been demolished however. Whether this a good or bad thing in the bigger scheme of things is a different question. What is not so debatable however is that the absense of such tower blocks reduces crime (again, check out broken window theory) in the location in question. The Parisienne Banlieue is even today, home to masses of tower blocks, forming large estates (des cités). Without getting into the numbers, it is no surprise that unemployment, homicides, low educational attainment are all statistically significantly high in the Parisienne Banlieue. Illegal drug trade is also unsuprisingly responsible for the generation of income for much of the youth.

Race is a particularly touchy topic in France. The term ‘race’ alone is taboo. France does not collect any data on the race (or ethnicity) of its citizens. Which is why this article can’t present or analyse the contrasting demographics of the Banlieue Parisienne and Paris itself. Nevertheless, if the data existed, it would portray that beyond the periphery the nation’s ethnic minorities are contrastingly not minorities. As mentioned previously, immigrants, particularly from ex-French colonies in North and Sub-Saharan Africa were able to settle in the suburbs under the low-income housing program.

Although the circumstances in some Parisian Suburbs may be below expectations for many, they do usually have one positive trait in common. Community. Given that a significant number of people usually share an entrance, a corridor, car park, lift, there is increased opportunities for human interaction. For example, nearly all Parisian Estates will have a football pitch in the middle of the estate (like below). This element of community can usually be seen in French movies covering the suburbs or Rap music videos.

I don’t intend to make a strong conclusion claiming anything in particular. What I can say is that the two cities are very comparable. Their total populations are similar, they are both the capitals of two countries with similar sized economies and they both attract millions of tourists. Beyond the ‘hearts’ of the two cities however, things look very different. One could argue that one is ‘protecting’ its ‘heart’, and one could respond that its not worth the price.

To close, this article was a formulation of my thoughts and findings. The intention behind it was to take a long walk through Greater London into Central London whilst looking around. Then from Central London, take the Eurostar to Paris. From there another long walk up north into the Banlieue Parisienne, again whilst looking around.

I’m by no means an expert on the above topics, I just spent an afternoon formulating some thoughts and findings, feel free to share any insight/thoughts.