Before redevelopment, the superb hillside location combined with cobbled lanes, individual gardens, numerous stairways, and local shops and cafés perfectly integrated with human-scale housing, gave the area around Belleville and Ménilmontant a unique charm – quite the equal of Montmartre, but without the touristy commercialism.For a picture of what it was like, there's no more evocative record than Willy Ronis's atmospheric photographs in Belleville Ménilmontant. But there's still on-the-ground evidence, in addition to the little cul-de-sacs of terraced houses and gardens east of rue des Pyrénées. There are alleys so narrow that nothing but the knife-grinder's tricycle could fit down them, like passage de la Duée, 17 rue de la Duée, and little detached houses, like 97 rue Villiers-de-l'Isle-Adam. You can also see the less romantic side of life in the grim neo-Gothic fortress housing estates of 140 rue de Ménilmontant, built in 1925 for the influx of rural populations after World War I, and the 1913 Villa Stendhal, off rue Stendhal, east of the southern section of rue des Pyrénées, in the Charonne area. In marked contrast is the housing right over to the east, near the Porte de Bagnolet, provided for workers in 1908 and almost unmatched in the city. From place Octave-Chanute, wide stone steps bordered by lanterns lead up to a miraculous little sequence of streets of terraced houses and gardens, some with Art Nouveau glass porches, fancy brickwork and the shade of lilac and cherry trees.
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