Just over a decade ago, Mulhouse, a town of 110,000 people near the German and Swiss borders, was a symbol of the death of the European high street. One of the poorest towns of its size in France, this former hub of the textile industry had long ago been clobbered by factory closures and industrial decline. It had high rates of poverty and youth unemployment, a shrinking population, and more than 100 shops empty or boarded up. The centre had become associated with gangs.
The city has been transformed over the last decade, with a new tram system and improved public spaces.
Mulhouse has turned around its image and now boasts more shops opening than closing, thanks to smart planning, investment and community efforts.
Sophie and Charlotte serve customers at their Mulhouse cafe, Le Nid.
Frédéric Marquet, Mulhouse’s town centre manager, says: ‘No other town in France can say all these brands have opened premises in the last five years.’
Marie Zeugmann, a former teacher, opened her independent clothes shop, Confidence(s), in Mulhouse last month, stocking designers prominent on Instagram and not normally found outside Paris or the Côte d’Azur. Like all Mulhouse independents, her shop is as much about providing a social space as it is about retail. Zeugmann is renovating the second floor into a champagne bar for independent producers.
...the town centre manager, is examining his database of empty premises to match them to new businesses. “Mulhouse currently has two shop openings for every closure,” he says. “No other town in France can say all these brands have opened premises in the last five years.”
These twins running their own business on the 1 May.
Olivier Razemon, the author of a recent study called How France Killed Its Towns, says town centres should be seen as a theatrical backdrop to life’s encounters, with the understanding that: “People don’t go to the town centre just for shops, but because it’s pleasant, because they want to meet up.”
Successful patisserie Dany Husser.
The busy shopping zone in the heart of Mulhouse.
Le Mur Mulhouse...
Olivier List, director of the organic supermarket 'Les Halles de Cernay', size about 800 m² with 40 employees.
On a lane in what was once considered eastern France’s grimmest town, a street artist is up a ladder finishing a mural (Le Mur Mulhouse, graffiti artist 'Stom 500' at work...), the independent bookshop has a queue at the till, the organic cooperative is full of customers and Séverine Liebold’s arty independent tea shop is doing a brisk trade.
When Liebold opened Tilvist in Mulhouse three years ago, in a space that had been vacant for years, friends tried to persuade her against it. “They said: ‘Not Mulhouse, look elsewhere,’” she recalls. “But I stuck with my instinct, and I was right.”
Junk shop 'La Boheme' with dog that looks real, but you don't have to feed, because it just looks alive.
Conversion of an industrial city. The Fonderie is the former industrial quarter of Mulhouse east of the main railway station and the city centre. The name comes from the 1826 branch of the industrialist André Koechlin, the founder of Société André Koechlin et Compagnie (forerunner of SACM and Alstom). The impressive main building, nicknamed "The Cathedral", has been renovated and now houses the Faculty of Economics, Social Sciences and Law.
In her town hall office, the mayor, Michèle Lutz, who once ran a hair salon in Mulhouse, says the town must now move into a second phase where the vibrancy of the centre extends to the surrounding neighbourhoods. “The town centre is buzzing now, but we can’t just concentrate on the small central perimeter, nor simply on shops – there has to be a vision of the town as a whole,” she says.
Mulhouse was once known as a “little Manchester” for its canals used by the textile industry, but many were later concreted over.
The major is leading a drive to renovate neglected canalsides that run through various neighbourhoods. The focus is on the fine detail, including improved lighting – important in a town where winter nights come early.
