Saint-Denis: station history
Served by: Transilien H.
Did you know?
A Seine-Saint-Denis station put into service by the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord when the Paris-Nord to Lille line opened. The station building dates from the early days of the line and has been enlarged several times: the very narrow main block has a two-storey central pavilion under a hipped roof, flanked by slightly lower wings and side pavilions, and on the street side a large single-storey hall grafts onto the building. The façade is cut stone and the roof zinc. The municipal council had first judged the chosen site unsuitable and wanted a location on place aux Gueldres.
Anecdote
In 1848, during the June Days, the station was set on fire shortly after the destruction of the Nord terminal in Paris. The more direct link to Creil, via Survilliers, opened in 1859 after six years of study. The words "L'Île-Saint-Denis" were added on the platforms to recall the service to that neighbouring commune. A junction station at PK 6.131, at 37 metres altitude, its forecourt was redeveloped in 2011 with a "pedestrianisation" of the neighbourhood, and the network's centralised control room, near the station, was commissioned in stages until 2018.
Around Saint-Denis
- Basilique cathédrale de Saint-Denis, 600 m away — The royal necropolis, holding over 70 recumbent statues and funerary monuments, with stained glass from the 12th and 19th centuries.
- Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur (ancienne abbaye royale), 600 m away — The former royal abbey rebuilt in the 18th century, occupied since 1809 by a Legion of Honour school, with its park.
- Musée d'art et d'histoire Paul-Éluard, 700 m away — A museum housed since 1981 in a 17th-century Carmelite convent, with medieval archaeology, the Hôtel-Dieu apothecary and a Paul Éluard collection.