Toulouse: what if the Villa Perry and its park offered a green lung to the Pink City
Between the green corridor along the Garonne and the filter basin at Ponts-Jumeaux, the park and its beautiful 19th century villa in the heart of the Amidonniers district could offer a green lung to the Pink City, and a major site at the Grand Parc Canal .
It is an extraordinary garden. Nestled between the green belt of the banks of the Garonne and the rue des Amidonniers, this 2 ha park with remarkable trees, even for some exceptional trees, would hide under its foliage a small Eiffel-style bridge, greenhouses or an orangery. On the street side, an imposing neo-Empire or late Empire style brick villa (it would have been built around the 1880s) dominates the park with its columns, vaguely Doric with their sober fluting. A majestic staircase opens onto the park. The ironwork at the openings, the balustrades and elaborate pediments around the tiled roof, give it a less austere look.
Make the house and its park accessible to the public
Owned by the Perry family of merchants from Toulouse for many years, this villa and its park would be for sale today. Lovers of the district and the association for the safeguard of the Brienne Bazacle Amidonniers district (ASBBA) fear that this wooded area and this remarkable building will become “prey” for property developers. The ASBBA alerted the mayor of Toulouse and the president of Toulouse Métropole by letter asking the community to pre-empt this site so that the villa and its gardens can be accessible to the public (La Dépêche of June 21, 2022).
Jean-Luc Moudenc says “measure” and “share” “the attachment of local residents to this place”. While reserving its response to the community’s decision, pending a “more detailed” examination of the file (see opposite). The mayor also intends to reassure by specifying that the site, subject to flooding, is unbuildable.
“The fact remains that a lot on the other side of rue des Amidonniers would be constructible”, worries Sylvie Mégevand, president of the ASBBA, “and this place near the city center and the Garonne is very coveted” . The association has compiled an application file for classification at the Drac (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs), for the moment without follow-up. the publication of its request for pre-emption to the municipality, the ASBBA was received by Annette Laigneau, deputy mayor in charge of town planning, “who did not close the door”, according to Sylvie Mégevand, and by François Chollet, deputy mayor in charge of the Grand Parc Garonne, at the beginning of the summer.
Water House, Villa Medici, neighborhood equipment
The park, if it were open to the public, could in fact link, for soft modes, the green corridor, and therefore the quays of Toulouse, to the emblematic sites of the Filtres basins and the Twin Bridges. The park of the Villa Perry would thus be at the crossroads, with the basins of the Filtres, the Canals du Midi, lateral to the Garonne and Brienne, and connected to the Garonne river. The ASBBA calls for the development of Villa Perry as a cultural and heritage site: “We have been waiting for a community center for a long time and have proposed that the villa become a meeting place that can host events, meetings and cultural initiatives, or why not a sort of Villa Medici”, declared Sylvie Megevand to La Dépêche last June. And why not a Maison de l’Eau, retracing Toulouse’s history linked to the Garonne and the canals, in this ideally placed site?
But Jean-Luc Moudenc, who visited the house a few years ago, believes that the villa would “not be convertible into a public place”, while recognizing the interest of the park. So, what future for this site? The community would be wrong to remain passive on this file, at the risk of missing a real opportunity to anchor a Grand Parc Canal, still vague, to a really concrete project.
The mayor is “on the spot” but wants to remain discreet
In his written response to the letter from the association asking him to pre-empt the park and the villa, Jean-Luc Moudenc specified: “This property is of particular interest, both from a heritage and environmental point of view. However, at this stage, I cannot give you more details on the decision that will be taken by the community”. Informally, the mayor would have declared during a discussion reported by the president of the ASBBA: “We are on the spot, I will not do the little finger for the house, but for the park it would be possible”. Questioned by us, the mayor told us, still informally, that he had visited the villa and the park at the invitation of the former owner, Mr. Perry, who was very attached to the district: “The land is unbuildable because in an area flooding, so there is nothing to worry about. The house cannot be converted into a public place”.