‘La société en miniature’ : queuing at theatres and railway stations in nineteenth-century paris

Abstract

In mid-nineteenth-century Paris, theatres and railway stations had become popular gathering places for urban crowds seeking leisure or transport. While the interiors were strictly segregated according to economic and social status, the mixed queues outside served as spaces of human contact and negotiation. I argue that queuing became an everyday spectacle that reflected the contemporary mass society. Architects and authorities imposed functional regulations on queues. The public developed a variety of habits of collective waiting. Artists depicted them in paintings, caricatures and panoramic literature. All three contributed to the queuing phenomenon by producing stereotypes related to class, gender, profession, and custom.