History of Roubaix
Early beginnings
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Chronology: Beginnings and early Middle Ages
The house of Roubaix
Revolution and Restoration
Industrialization and Belle Époque
The world wars
Post-war until today
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For a long time the northern French city of Roubaix consisted only of a small rural settlement, away from the large Roman settlements, roads, rivers and strategic invasion routes. The population came mainly from the Celtic - Germanic tribes of the Nervier and Menapier .
The first known cartographic mention of the settlement comes from AD 863 as Robacum . At that time, Roubaix had already grown into a "villa", a loose community of rural properties that were dependent on a central country estate in which the local ruler resided ( villa dominicata ).
The history of this settlement only took shape when the region was divided into administrative areas, the most original form of which was a diocese . Since its first mention, Roubaix was incorporated into the diocese of Tournai and was to remain in it for 1000 years.
The conversion of the population to Christianity is attributed to a noble woman from Roubaix named Thècle. A revelation is said to have given her the location of the tomb of St. Eleuthère - the first bishop of Tournai - in Blandain, Belgium . The miracles that followed - especially the healing of the blind Thècle - are said to have convinced the pagan population in 881 to convert to Christianity. In fact, the conversion of the population proceeded slowly and with difficulty and suffered severe setbacks due to the immigration of the Franks and the turmoil of the later migrations. In the 9th century, the old customs of the tribes and the Roman belief in gods were mixed and practiced publicly and only gradually supplanted by the Christian faith as the monasteries spread.
The search for a political identity
The county of Flanders was subject to the sovereignty of the French kingdom. The story of Roubaix reflects the eventful and enduring struggle of the Counts of Flanders to obtain exemption from this controversial rule, which was particularly characterized by the taxes imposed. In addition, at that time Flanders was a major supplier of fabrics for all of Europe and was dependent on English wool. At the same time, the French kingdom was not ready to lose this important economic factor to its political rival.
The life of the rulers of Roubaix, as well as their sovereigns, was shaped by this political ambivalence. Their modest rulership was in the heart of a region where opposing peoples have met and fought since time immemorial.
The attractions of the various camps divided the families of the region and made them the subject of many feuds and conflicts of interest. A ruler of Roubaix fought against Philip II of August at the Battle of Bouvines , and his descendant, a captain of the Lille garrison in the service of the French king, fought an English column in 1340 that was within range of his armed forces. In the same year, however, an English army besieged under King Edward III. Tournai and razed all the localities of the Tourcoing , Roubaix and Lannoy region to the ground.
The first known ruler of Roubaix was Bernard I , died in 1119. His son Bernard II gained the dignity of advisor to the Count of Flanders. Another documented ruler, Alard I , shared the lot of his lord Guy de Dampierre , Count of Flanders, and was captured in the Spore Battle at Compiègne . In the same year he was freed, but was captured again and held as a hostage in order to assure his master's peaceful attitude. However, this provisional peace would only last until the Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle in 1304.
Through the peace treaty of Athis-sur-Orge , which was ratified in 1305, the domains of Lille, Douai and Orchies fell to France and the province they formed was given the name Flandre Wallonne (German: Walloon Flanders ) or "Gallicante" . This state, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1320, was maintained until 1369.
The house of Roubaix
The first ruler of Roubaix who can be ascribed a significant role in the history of the city is Jean V (1368–1449). He began his military career at the age of 14 in the Battle of Roosebeke in 1382. Because of his good services, Jean V was given a considerable fortune from which his territory directly benefited. On behalf of the Duke of Burgundy , Johann Ohnefurcht , he appointed seven board members in 1414 and gave the city its first administration. Thereupon he received the privilege of the highest judiciary in 1420, with which this new municipal administration gained independence from Lille .
After his death in 1449, his son Pierre took over the inheritance and served the Duke of Burgundy well. The town's reputation and increased fortune benefited. An archivist from Roubaix named Théodore Leuridan wrote in the 19th century:
“ The modest little turret was no longer sufficient for the great Lord of Roubaix, whom a strange preference kept in his domain of Roubaix. He replaced it with an excellent residence, surrounded by fortress walls and a double moat. Roubaix Castle did a great service to the residents, who retired there with their belongings and cattle when the land was occupied. "
The expansion of the Roubaix castle took place in the middle of the 15th century. The castle area stretched from the Grande Place opposite the Saint Martin church to today's Rue de la Poste behind the town hall and was surrounded by a moat.
Pierre allocated land to the residents for the construction of a housing estate near the castle. This early settlement was bordered by moats and hedges. The settlement developed into a town in a few years, which was finally granted commercial rights on November 1, 1469. Pierre's support extended to the planning and financing of the construction of the parish church Saint-Martin , with which he wanted to highlight the newly acquired prominence of his dominion. However, the construction of the church tower was not to be completed before 1571. In memory of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Pierre had the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher built, which then rose on the northern part of today's Place de la Liberté and was later destroyed by fire. A hospice was added to this chapel for the members of the parish.
Pierre's only descendant was a daughter named Isabella (French Isabeau ). While her father was still alive, she founded the Sainte Elisabeth Hospice, whose monastery could accommodate up to 800 people. As the only heir to an enormous fortune, she supported this hospice to an extent that it has survived until recently. In times of great poverty during the late Middle Ages, the hospice played an important role.
From Isabella's marriage to Jacques de Luxembourg-Ligny , Lord of Richebourg († 1487), there were three daughters and two sons named François and Charles, who died at a young age. François' mausoleum can still be found today in the church of Saint Martin. The house of Roubaix ended with Isabella in 1502. More precisely, the inheritance of Roubaix fell into the hands of the von Werchin family through the marriage between Jolande von Roubaix († 1534) and Nicolas von Werchin-Barbançon , Baron de Werchin et de Cysoing .
With the abdication of Charles V in 1556, the areas of today's Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of northern France fell to the Spanish crown. The county of Flanders thus became part of the Spanish Netherlands and Roubaix was declared a marquisate by Philip II in 1579 . It was not until 1667 that Roubaix was reintegrated into French territory.
Revolutionary years and empire
In the 18th century , Roubaix had grown into a regionally important market town (French: Bourg ) with around 8,000 inhabitants. The expansion of the city started from the core of Roubaix around the small squares Petite Place and Place de l'Église on the Église Saint-Martin . In 1790 the city grew in a semicircle to the west, north and east within a radius of 500 meters around this core.
The baseline of this semicircle was formed by the streets rue St Georges (now rue Général Sarrail ) and Grande-Rue . Its southward expansion was restricted by the Trichon brook, the ruins of the castle and the remains of the hospital. South of this axis there were only homesteads and farms that were only connected to the city by dirt roads. These rural settlements included Fresnoy , Fontenoy , Couteaux , Hommelet , Pile , Tilleul , Haut Moulin, and a little further afield, Trois Ponts .
On January 22, 1790, Roubaix received its first mayor with the appointment of Constant-Joseph Florin. Since Roubaix was far from the great trade routes, all external events had a belated influence on the city. However, the poverty of the population prior to the French Revolution had not passed the city by. The city council set up a fund for the poor, into which the wealthy citizens of the city contributed. This “voluntary payment” was continuously increased in the following years in order to counteract the increasing poverty.
When the coalition declared war on revolutionary France in 1792 , the city council decided to make the city defensible. So the city was fortified in all directions with protective walls, palisades and head-high barricades. At the same time a workshop for black powder production was set up in the castle and a national guard with a strength of 190 men was set up. In the same year the city decided to tolerate the clergy who had previously resided there, but did not allow clergymen who were fleeing into exile from all over France to find refuge in the city.
On July 27, 1794, the urban area was divided into four sections, which are based on the four gates of the city defense. On November 22nd, 1795, the city decided to give up the cemetery in the city center for hygienic reasons and moved it to a 27-hectare site near the Potennerie , the so-called cemetery of the Champ de Beaurewaert in the south of the city. The population of Roubaix was hit three times by plague epidemics in the 17th and 18th centuries .
In 1795, a compulsory tax was imposed on wealthy residents to finance defense measures. State restrictions on the Church and the practice of the faith reached Roubaix only gradually and did not come into full force until 1799.
In 1802, a dyer suggested building a small dam and reservoir on the Trichon in the area of the brasserie to support his trade and that of the laundries. It was here that the problem of the city's water supply emerged for the first time, which would occupy it for the next 60 years.
The city remained isolated. For political reasons, the city council saw no need to improve the connecting roads to neighboring Brabant or even to Lille and Tourcoing.
Roubaix after the restoration
The city welcomed the renewed rule of Louis XVIII. even if it lost its economically valuable relations with neighboring Belgium through this government. In February 1817, however, the city was imposed a levy of 100 million francs on the city to finance the accommodation of the occupation troops - a Saxon contingent was stationed in Roubaix .
Urbanization and development into the textile capital
In 1819 city planning was redesigned through the initiative of the prefect through the Barbotin plan . The main traffic routes were redesigned, widened and improved. Before that, it was not possible for two cars to cross freely. The rue Pellart was brought to a width of seven meters. This urban construction work dragged on until August 1821. Since the connecting roads to the individual farmsteads and villages in the municipality were to be improved, the city council decided in 1822 to pave these previously unpaved trade routes over a width of 66 cm. The city council realized in the same year that trade relations were suffering from the delayed arrival of mail from the head office in Lille. In 1824, Roubaix finally got its own small post office, which was housed in the police station.
“ In Roubaix I was able to convince myself of the extraordinary expansion that our industry experienced in the north. The noise of the machines [...] , the mills torment the head here; there is no remote corner of an attic or basement that is not occupied by industry. "
This is what the politician and writer Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy said after a visit to Roubaix in 1821. Above all, the traditional textile industry in northern France is experiencing a true technical revolution as a result of industrialization and dominates the city's economic life. Since Charles the Bold was granted the privilege of manufacturing cloth and wool products in 1469, Roubaix's entire economic life had been devoted to textile manufacture.
In paradoxical contrast to the ever increasing industrialization of the city, there was its connection to surrounding cities. After a number of applications to build a transport connection with Tourcoing were rejected, the Tourcoing municipality built the road to Roubaix with its own resources in 1829, which shortened the previous connection by a journey time of 30 minutes. This resulted in the rue Tourcoing . Except for a few smaller connections, Roubaix had no developed road connection with Lille, Tourcoing or Lannoy until almost the middle of the 19th century. Only the neighboring villages of Mouvaux and Wattrelos were connected to the city. Due to the isolation, there was no urbanization of Roubaix up to this point.
However, these local difficulties did not prevent the textile industry from booming. Textile manufacturers such as Allart-Rousseau and Amédée Prouvost introduced new manufacturing techniques that improved the quality of the fabrics and made them competitive in the world market dominated by Great Britain. The discovery of chemistry as a substitute for animal and vegetable dyes also contributed to the growth of the industry. Roubaix becomes the “city of 1,000 chimneys” (French ville aux 1,000 cheminées ) and “French Manchester ” (French la Manchester française ).
Roubaix shakes off the insulation
In 1835 Roubaix began to expand to the southwest to rue de l'Alouette , to the northeast to rue des Lignes , to the north to rue Saint Joseph , and to the east to the Galon d'Eau stream . The original axis to the south was also exceeded. So the city also expanded towards Lannoy (southeast) and south to today's rue de la Poste .
In 1838 an application was made to build a railway line from Lille to Tourcoing and Mouscron . The route should run through Mouvaux and not Roubaix, which provoked the objection of the Roubaisiens. After long discussions, an agreement was reached on the route through Roubaix that still exists today. In the same year the city council submitted an urban plan that envisaged the expansion of the city by 200 streets in a time frame of 100 (!) Years. This humble plan was accomplished in just 25 years (in 1900 Roubaix had 500 streets and 1,250 side streets, and in 1962 there were 548 streets and 922 side streets). This is mainly due to the explosive increase in the population: between 1815 and 1880 the number of inhabitants quadrupled twice and finally reached 120,000 inhabitants in 1900.
In 1840 the city determined that the central church Église Saint-Martin could accommodate up to 3,000 people. However, at numerous masses, the same number of people were outside the church. So it was decided to build a second church, the Notre-Dame on rue des Lignes in the north-west of the city, as well as an extension of the Église Saint-Martin, which began in 1856.
In 1847 the city suffered from an unemployment crisis and the population from great poverty. Construction work was almost completely stopped. The agency for the support of the poor received a subsidy of 10,000 francs from the state. In addition, the city council decided to build a makeshift hospital, known as the Hôpital de Blanchemaille until the mid-1990s, and located at Roubaix train station until the dilapidated building was demolished. Napoleon III had expressed the wish to lay the first stone of the building, as a thank you the hospice bore his name until 1870. The crisis was not overcome until 1849 and the city began to recover only slowly.
Roubaix achieved better transport links to its surroundings and supply options for its industry through the construction of the Canal de Roubaix , which was completed from the Belgian side to Roubaix in 1843 and, after unsuccessful attempts to connect south to Croix, was led around the city in the north. The entire construction of the canal was completed in 1876. The canal, which connected Roubaix in the east with Tournai on the Scheldt , in the west with Lille and other cities in northern France and in the north with Tourcoing, solved the growing problem of supplying industry with raw materials and coal. Above all, the constant water shortage in the city was put to an end by this canal, the water level of which was increased in later years by an additional, underground feed from Lille.
Another important step in opening up the city, which helped make Roubaix famous up to the present day, was the first cycle race from Paris to Roubaix in 1896. The one-day race , which ran over 250 kilometers through northern France, was due to its hardness, due to numerous sections of the route running over cobblestones, the world's most famous of its kind.
Belle Époque and economic climax
Within 100 years the population had increased from 8,000 to 120,000. The death rate, however, had quadrupled in the last ten years alone and forced the city to open a new 2 hectare cemetery in the area of today's Place Nadaud in the northeast of the city.
25 years earlier, the surrounding villages that were dependent on Roubaix had implemented their own community formation. This created a separation between Roubaix-ville (city) and Roubaix-campagne (country). In the course of advancing industrialization, this separation became more and more visible. It was not until 1857 that it was found that the welfare of the surrounding villages of the municipality had a positive effect on the welfare of the city. The focus was increasingly on improving transport and trade connections. The city spread further south. The growth of the brick factories in particular brought with it a large purchase of land in the south, which was then built on with residential buildings. The workers' houses were often built in the immediate vicinity of their workplaces. But the industrialists also settled in the city and so it was not uncommon for the poor workers' houses to be in the immediate vicinity of the villas of rich manufacturers and the large industrial plants. The Cimetière de Roubaix still bears witness to the wealth of industrial families . This cemetery, which was created in 1850 and which, after numerous relocations as a result of the great expansion of the city, finally found its final location in the east of the then city limits, has over 500 richly designed mausoleums and monuments to the political and economic personalities of the city.
The growing population brought up the issue of the city's water supply again. The water of the Trichon, polluted by industry, was no longer enough. A company was commissioned to transport water from the Leie to Roubaix. The project was completed in 1863.
Although the number of spinning mills and textile manufacturers fell by roughly half between 1860 and 1900, production power continued to rise due to technical progress and the final dominance of large production facilities over the many small manufacturers. The opening of the larger train station in 1888 and the “National School of Textile Arts and Textile Industries” (French: École nationale des arts et industries textiles ) and the election of the weaver Henri Carrette as mayor are further signs of the extraordinary importance of the industry.
The International Textile Exhibition in Roubaix
The year 1911 marked the climax of Roubaix's economic and social development. On the same day as the inauguration of the new town hall, the design of which pays tribute to the artisanal and commercial bodies of the city, Roubaix welcomes the International Textile Exhibition in Parc Barbieux . This park not far from the city center, created in two construction phases (1878–88 and 1903–06) and grown into the green lung of the industrial city, accommodates 3,429 exhibitors and 775,433 visitors.
During this time, Eugène Motte, the most famous mayor of Roubaix (1902–1912), also took office. The construction of the new town hall and many other construction projects will be completed during his tenure. His family name is closely linked to the history of the city: large industrialists and important local politicians have played a decisive role in shaping the image of Roubaix. In 1912, however, he was voted out of office. He is succeeded by Jean Baptiste Lebas from the Socialist Party. This mayor should excel especially in the years of the two world wars.
The world wars and the economic decline
Aside from outstanding projects like Parc Barbieux, the city had placed little emphasis on beauty, the arts and culture during its rapid growth. The prosperity now made it possible to usher in the - only very brief - Belle Époque Roubaix. Two world wars and an economic crisis were to bring this new development to an abrupt end. However, even after the First World War , numerous buildings were built that bear witness to this social rethink. The Art Deco style swimming pool, which was built in the 1920s and now houses the Museum of Art and Industry , deserves a special mention here .
The First World War and the difficult interwar period
On October 9, 1914, the population of Roubaix was asked to evacuate the city before the rapidly advancing German troops . The national shock caused by the unexpected invasion did not stop at Roubaix either. On October 14th, the Bavarian 165th Infantry Regiment occupied the city. After four years of military administration under Lieutenant Colonel Hoffmann, Roubaix was liberated on October 17, 1918. But during the occupation , the city was systematically looted and economically weakened: raw materials, machines and textile products were confiscated. The Minister for Reconstruction, Louis Loucheur, said: "The entire wealth of the region, one of the most prosperous in France, has been destroyed." The population also suffered greatly from the occupation: a strict regiment was ruled in the city near the front. To ensure a peaceful attitude among the population, at least twelve hostages had to be in the town hall at all times. The population also suffered from food shortages and lack of heating.
In 1918 a German officer was billeted in the villa of the industrialist Léon Motte. He was later accused of stealing property, a process that led to the Nathusius case in 1924 .
In addition to the looting and destruction of the production facilities, customers turned to other textile manufacturers after four years of production downtime. Rapid rebuilding, however, allowed it to regain pre-war production rates in 1922 and national leadership as a textile center in 1927. However, the collapse of the Wall Street Stock Exchange in 1929 was disastrous for Roubaix as well. The effect of the stock market crash occurred in Roubaix due to the close connection with the British market in September 1931 with the inflation of the pound sterling . From the beginning of 1932, exports, which had previously benefited from good exchange rates , also collapsed . In 1936/37, after years of business and company closings, the number of unemployed reached its peak.
Roubaix achieved a positive climax in these difficult times on a sporting level: two soccer teams from Roubaix, the Excelsior AC Roubaix and the RC Roubaix , face each other in the cup final .
World War II and its ultimate decline
On May 24, 1940, Roubaix was again occupied by German troops after they had invaded France within a few weeks. By June 1940, most of Roubaix's population had fled: of the 122,000 inhabitants, only 15,000 remained in the city. The turmoil and destruction of the first days of the war was exacerbated by the masses of refugees and then by the establishment of a restricted zone that stretched from the Belgian border to the Somme . The Nord-Pas-de-Calais region was thus cut off from France and the city was again systematically plundered. In the course of the occupation, the city's industry was restarted under special conditions and high investment of money by the industrialists, but production suffered from considerable supply difficulties. On September 2, 1944, Roubaix was finally liberated by British troops. 500 inhabitants were missing at the end of the war in the city that had been an important center of the Resistance .
One particular loss that Roubaix suffered was its former mayor, Jean-Baptiste Lebas. He had already been captured during the First World War because he had refused to hand over the list of 18-year-old men in the city to the occupiers so that they could be brought to Germany for forced labor . Lebas was released in 1917. When the German army invaded again in 1940, he fled, but then returned and organized the local resistance. He was captured by the Gestapo on May 21, 1941 and later deported to Germany. He died in captivity in 1944.
Roubaix benefited from a general upswing during the first two post-war years, but from 1949 it lost its vigor and swept the city's economy with it. After modern spirits prevailed over the representatives of “former” values and the standards and equipment of the production facilities were modernized, the decline of the textile industry was halted for a short time. In addition, the converging European market, new production techniques and materials (including polyamide , polypropylene , elastomer and polyester ) as well as the automation of machines promoted the upswing in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The end of the textile industry in Roubaix was triggered by a worldwide crisis in the industry in 1965. Numerous companies that had not adapted to versatile and modern production or trading methods disappeared from the market. This put an end to the traditional economic basis of Roubaix.
The change of the city - "La ville renouvelée"
As early as 1929, Roubaix had dedicated himself to the mail order business (French vente par correspondance , VPC) and earned the nickname “VPC Valley”. After the collapse of the textile industry, the local economy concentrated on this branch and grew into a major European mail order location. Companies like La Redoute (since 1873) and 3 Suisses (since 1932 in neighboring Croix) achieve national and international success. Other shops and companies such as Auchan (since 1961), L'Usine (since 1984) and the Mac Arthur Glen Shopping Center (since 1999) shape the new face of the city.
But above all, the return to the cultural heritage of the old economic foundations, the factory buildings, should preserve the charm of the former industrial city. L'Usine , an amalgamation of several shops, has set up shop in the old Motte factory; the “center of the archives for the world of work” (French Center des archives du monde du travail ) is located in the “factory monster” (French l'usine monstre ), a factory of the industrialist Louis Motte-Bossut, which is a landmark of renewal has become; the old swimming pool from the 1920s is being transformed into the Museum of Arts and Crafts (French: Musée d'Art et d'Industrie ). The city is renewing itself under the motto "La ville renouvelée" (German: the renewed city ) through a mixture of preservation and use of old industrial buildings and the construction of modern office and business centers.
The region had also changed structurally and slowly formed a suburban agglomeration with Lille as its center , which grew closer and closer together and was finally merged in 1967 as the community association Lille Métropole Communauté urbaine . Roubaix 'connection to this agglomeration was increased by the expansion of European route 17 to Lille and the completion of the tram connection with Lille in 1999.
Northern French melting pot?
The face of the city is also shaped by a multitude of clashing cultures. Towards the end of the 20th century there are around 100 nationalities in Roubaix. The integration of these different origins has become a difficult and not always conflict-free political and social issue.
But the topic is not new: The city near the border already dealt with this problem towards the end of the 19th century, when it was necessary to take in the numerous Belgian citizens and their descendants born in France who were looking for work in the textile capital. The Flemish job seekers in the north were also disparagingly called "pots-au-burre" (German butter kegs) or "Flahutes". From 1889 onwards, all children of Belgian descent born in France were declared French. After all, this affected 180,000 people in northern France and around 50% of the inhabitants of Roubaix.
But the textile industry also attracted people from more distant countries: Poles, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese. This social issue was shaped above all by the immigration of people from the Maghreb . Roubaix has the largest Maghreb community in northern France: As early as 1996, the proportion of Maghreb residents was estimated at 50% (which would correspond to the proportion of the Belgian population in Roubaix at the end of the 19th century). This number has been officially corrected to 30% (corresponds to approx. 30,000 people). Numerous people of French and Maghreb origin see the complicated clash of both cultures in the unemployed region as a clash of cultures .
See also
literature
- Michel David et al. a .: Roubaix: cinquante ans de transformations urbaines et de mutations sociales . Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Villeneuve d'Ascq 2006, ISBN 2-85939-926-7 .
- Théodore Leuridan: Histoire des seigneurs et de la seigneurie de Roubaix . Roubaix 1862. (Reprint: Les Editions de la Tour Gile, 1994, ISBN 2-87802-197-5 )
- Gaston Motte: L'Urbanization de Roubaix au XIX eme Siècle . Société d'Émulation de Roubaix, 1964.
- Philippe Waret, Jean-Pierre Popelier: Roubaix de A à Z . Editions Alain Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2006, ISBN 2-84910-459-0 .
Web links
- Summary of the history of Roubaix on www.nordmag.fr (French)
- Website of the Société d'Emulation de Roubaix with numerous articles on history (French)
- Private website with extensive information on the history of the city at www.lycos.fr (French)
- Private website on the history of the city (French / English)
Remarks
- ↑ Théodore Leuridan: Histoire des Seigneurs et des la Seigneurie de Roubaix
- ^ “C'est à Roubaix que j'ai pu me rendre compte de la prodigieuse extension qu'apprise notre industrie dans le Nord. Le bruit des machines, des mécaniques, des moulins vous rompt ici la tête; il n'y a de coin si reculé de grenier, de cave que l'industrie n'occupe. " From: Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , D'un bourg à une ville , Partie 5. Translated by the author.
- ↑ Information on the Motte-Bossut family ( Memento of the original from April 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr
- ^ Philippe Waret, Jean-Pierre Popelier: Roubaix de A à Z. p. 79.
- ^ Website of the Center d'Archives in Roubaix. De la "Filature Monstre" at Center d'Archives: 150 ans d'histoire. Chronological overview of the development from a factory to an institution.
- ^ Philippe Waret, Jean-Pierre Popelier: Roubaix de A à Z. p. 177.
