The Lenin hall
The workers' cooperative of La Bellevilloise - founded in 1877 - built in 1910 its House of the People in Boyer street, place then gathering a big store of sale to the public, offices, a cafe, a room of rehearsal, meeting & party rooms.
In 1927, its architect Emmanuel Chaine delivers an extension to No. 25 of the same street. On the building are still visible the medallions bearing "Science" and "Work", which paralleled those of the House of the People, as well as the sickle and the hammer on a rising sun over the porch.
In the basement stood refrigeration facilities; on the ground floor, a garage for the delivery and maintenance of the vehicles of the cooperative; on the first floor were the offices and the library of the University of La Semaille, and finally on the top floor, the Lenin Hall with a balcony with wrought iron railings, and a capacity of 500 seats.
In the Lenin Hall, from February 1929, were musical initiation evenings around works by Satie, Ravel or Debussy.
Were also organized screenings of Soviet films: Battleship Potemkin, the Winter Palace Award, etc.
Then the hall then became a public cinema, the Cinema Bellevillois, at the beginning of 1930.
The business were sold in 1936, but a regular programmation including Ciné Liberté productions ran until June 1939.
After the war, the room was sold to independent operators under the name Les Étoiles, then Stella, until its closure, on December 31, 1956.
Since, successively, the room was a company refectory and a theater school before closing its doors again during almost 20 years.
Today, the Solaris revives the artistic legacy of the place by hosting photo & video shooting and events.