Parisian arcades were glass-roofed miniature cities built by joint property speculation

Evidence

These arcades, a recent invention of industrial luxury, are glass-roofed, marble-walled passages, cut through whole blocks of houses, whose owners have combined in this speculation. On either side of the passages, which draw their light from above, run the most elegant shops, so that an arcade of this kind is a city, indeed a world in miniature. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 76

Categorization

• XREF: Direct echo of Benjamin’s arcades project and of Borges’ ‘world in miniature’ motif; connects to earlier notes on mimesis.
• CANDY: The 1852 opening dates, seven-million-franc turnover, and the idea that arcades were ‘cities, indeed a world in miniature’ are light, shareable facts for a conversation about retail or urbanism.