Rosa Parks: station history
Served by: RER E.
Did you know?
An RER line E station in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, opened on 13 December 2015, with an official inauguration on 6 February 2016 in the presence of Prime Minister Manuel Valls. A vast urban passage runs under the tracks of Paris-Est station, then at the level of the Petite Ceinture line, and crosses the Macdonald warehouse; the station building is beneath the central platform, and the facilities are accessible to people with reduced mobility. The station was first called Évangile, after the rue and the croix de l'Évangile; in 2011, the STIF decided to name it Rosa Parks, in tribute to the seamstress who became a figure of the American civil rights movement.
Anecdote
In a consultation, residents of the cité Curial put the name of the doctor Bernard Tétu first, closely followed by Rosa Parks. Works began on 9 December 2011, and the first train entered the station at 12:04, from Tournan. Because of the state of emergency, no official event was held at the opening. On 3 October 2015, during the Nuit blanche, a collective took over the pedestrian tunnel, exceptionally open to the public, and a street-art wall along the tracks on rue d'Aubervilliers hosts artists including JonOne.
Around Rosa Parks
- Rotonde de la Villette, 650 m away — A toll pavilion built in 1784-1788 by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, now a restaurant with a terrace.
- Bassin de la Villette, 650 m away — Filled with water on 2 December 1808, this basin is the end of the Ourcq canal, created by a decree of Napoleon in 1802, and the starting point of the Canal Saint-Martin.
- Parc de la Villette, 1200 m away — A 55-hectare park laid out on the site of the former slaughterhouses, whose closure the City announced in 1973. Bernard Tschumi was given its architecture in 1983. Several themed gardens, with play areas, were built here.