Claude Debussy
One of Debussy's documented Paris homes, his address until around 1894 - the years of the Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune and the first work on Pelleas et Melisande.
42 rue de Londres
Still standing
Outside only
A building
One of Claude Debussy's documented Paris homes, and his address until around 1894 — the years in which he wrote the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and began Pelléas et Mélisande.
- 42 rue de Londres, 75008 Paris
- One of Debussy's Paris addresses, until around 1894
Illustration
The place, briefly
Claude Debussy lived at 42 rue de Londres until roughly 1894. He was in his early thirties, poor, and in the middle of the most decisive stretch of work in his life.
The Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune was completed and first performed in 1894. He had also begun Pelléas et Mélisande, the opera that would take him the better part of a decade. Neither had yet made him any money: Debussy in these years was living on lessons, small commissions and credit, in a quarter of narrow streets behind the Gare Saint-Lazare.
The building is private and carries no marker.
Key facts
- Until around 1894
- Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune; the beginnings of Pelléas et Mélisande
- The Europe district, behind the Gare Saint-Lazare
- Private — exterior only
In images
Timeline
The Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is first performed; Debussy is living at this address.
On the map
Questions before you go
What did Debussy write while living on the rue de Londres?
The years to around 1894 produced the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and the earliest work on the opera Pelléas et Mélisande.
People who knew this place
Within walking distance
Pont de l'Europe
The iron bridge carrying six streets across the tracks behind Gare Saint-Lazare — the subject of Gustave Caillebotte's 1876 painting, and the spot where Impressionism looked hardest at industrial Paris.
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Gare Saint-Lazare
Paris's oldest terminus — Claude Monet's steam-filled train shed, the boat trains to the Atlantic liners, and the platform where the Paris chapters of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night end in pistol shots.
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4 rue de Saint-Pétersbourg
Manet's studio through the 1870s, whose windows looked down on what was then the rue Mosnier — the street he painted repeatedly, flags and all, in the summer of 1878.
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Place de Dublin
The star-shaped junction in the Quartier de l'Europe where Gustave Caillebotte set Paris Street; Rainy Day — and one of the few places in Paris where you can stand almost exactly where a famous painting was composed and recognise everything.
Visit the placeReferences
References
The sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document 42 rue de Londres, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.
1Debussy in fin-de-siècle Paris
WebsiteAcademia.eduUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the 42 rue de Londres page.
2Claude Debussy
WebsiteOpéra national de ParisUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the 42 rue de Londres page.
3Claude Debussy: Biographie
WebsiteIRCAM–Centre PompidouUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the 42 rue de Londres page.
4The Velvet Revolution of Claude Debussy
PeriodicalThe New Yorker, 2018Used forContemporary reporting or criticism used to document the historical reception and context of 42 rue de Londres.
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Why these sources are here
These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.
Explore more resourcesNewsletter
Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.