ARCADES PROJECT

The highlight of Geneva’s Passage des Lions is surely the glass ceiling, with its intricate ironwork support and the dome in the centre, even if this is not original from the arcade’s origins in 1910.

The four lions that guard the two entrances and give the arcade its name are also star attractions, two of them standing over the entrance in rue de la Confederation, the other two at the other entrance in rue du Rhone. They are pretty impressive beasts, especially the ones that have been restored and are lit up at night in the main road the trams run along.

The mosaic flooring is not original, though a good attempt was made in the renovations to achieve a pattern as close to the original as possible – just a shame the base was not firm enough when the work was done, and a crack appears along quite a long section of the flooring down the length of the arcade.

The UBS Bank used to occupy half the arcade (hence the story from 1990 in the stories from the past), but now the arcade units are occupied by a women’s clothes boutique, a jeweller’s, a Swiss watch shop, an Italian restaurant, and a chocolate shop and café. There is signage up for a speciality coffee shop, but no sign of it in the arcade today, which is a shame as that would have got my vote for favourite shop.

There are offices above the ground level, so this gives a steady flow of people through the day, though the café seems to be the biggest draw for arcade footfall, and it gets my vote for a pleasant cuppa under the glass ceiling.

My pick of the arcade’s past

It took seven years to build the arcade, and the buildings around it, from 1903-10. The financing came from a French Viscount who had made a fortune through speculation.

Historian Benedict Frommel says that to avoid noxious smells and noises, certain shops were barred from setting up, so this arcade started out with clothes stores and dressmakers, for example.

In 1990 there was a hold-up in the UBS bank in the arcade. Five Corsican bank robbers raided the bank, tied up the staff and made off with millions of Swiss Francs in their pockets. They didn’t get away with it for long, according to the story told by Jerome Estebe in his post at the link here.

This arcade in films or books

I have yet to find any films or books set in Passage des Lions, but surely there must have been some. Can anyone help?

What memories do you have of visits in years gone by?

Have you got any good stories to add on the past of this arcade?

What’s your favourite shop in the arcade today?

My favourite shop in the arcade

Since the apparent departure of the speciality coffee shop in the arcade, my favourite spot now has to be the chocolate cafe, where you can sit under the glass ceiling and people watch as you sip your drink.

Is there a website for this arcade?

I found no trace of a website or of social media pages for the Passage des Lions itself, though many of the individual businesses in the arcade are on the net.