Palais watering-hole evolves with the times

Bar de la Presse Back in Business

David WINCH, UNOG

Clattering cups, the whirr of espresso machines and animated café chatter make the Bar de la Presse one of the few places in Palais des Nations to actually generate some buzz.

While the venerable media watering- hole is good for sandwiches and beer at lunch, it is hardly Paris by night after- hours; no alcohol is served after 6.30 pm, and this was granted by UNOG only after negotiations to allow any bar service at all, following minor barroom altercations in mid-2001.

The “Presse Bar” as it’s bilingually known to its anglophone patrons, opened in 1936, and is now a fixture of the social landscape at the Palais. Many staff look only glancingly at the decorations and architecture, grabbing a sandwich on the way back to the office or, in summer, out to the lawn. But the landmark has quite a history, both social and architectural.

A rowdy crowd

The Bar de la Presse was first opened in 1936, but with a configuration that was much longer and more narrow than today – 18 metres long by just 6 metres wide. A lengthy bar with high stools stretched for much of that distance. Half-way through, three small steps separated off another, more cozy corner of the bar. This end enjoyed a window view of the lake and the Alps, through what is now the offices of Agence France-Presse. All testimony indicates this old Presse Bar felt far more clubby and comfortable.

Robert Kroon, a veteran UN reporter since the mid-1950s for among others Time magazine and the Dutch Press Association, recalls an era when the Presse Bar was a good deal more rollicking and lively, with poker games, late-night hours, and a generally more free-wheeling atmosphere. Kroon recalls regular opening hours at the old Presse Bar extending until 10 pm and even midnight, non-stop dice games, a high-octane drink called mazout that was a favourite of the working press, and “many, many” affairs and marriages between UN staff and reporters prompted by Presse Bar encounters.

Today’s atmosphere is far more calm. A recent UNOG administration circular warning of “incidents” at the Bar, about which most UN staff knew nothing, left many to imagine saloon- type punch-‘em-ups. Kroon, who led discussions with UNOG director-general Petrovsky to reopen the bar in the aftermath, says the “Battle of the Presse Bar” of 2001 much less serious than imagined. Still, it resulted in sharp curtailment of hours for alcohol in 2001, lifted only after several months.

UNOG behaved “very UN-like”, contends Kroon, when, unlike a private proprietor who might simply expel the offending customers, the UN instead closed the entire establishment! Kroon recounts a series of letters to then- Director-General Petrovsky pointing out the absurdity of the situation. The ban was finally rescinded, and alcohol is now served again until 6.30 on workdays.

Whether the UN has changed, or the working press has become more tame and bourgeois, the atmosphere of the Presse Bar is perhaps not what it used to be. But at least now you can grab a quick drink on the way home, unlike in much of 2001.

Design changed “for worse”

Some changes, however, have not been for the better. The classic long and narrow bar format lasted until 1974, when a complete redesign of the Porte 6 and Porte 23 entrance areas took away the bar’s lake view. The area at the end of the Porte 23 corridor was converted to simply another office space. The 110 square metres of the original Bar was expanded to amore boxy and open 130 sq.m., but many critics say this came at the expense of the Bar’s charm.

Jean-Claude Pallas, former head of buildings and facilities at Palais des Nations, notes in his comprehensive book on Palais design, Histoire et Architecture du Palais des Nations (United Nations, 2001), in a detailed section on the Bar de la Presse (pp. 347-350), that this redesign was regrettable: “One can only deplore the loss of charm, the lake view and original design elements” that the remake entailed, writes Pallas. The corridor out to the lakeside press parking lot became a narrow afterthought, and not a grand entrance, notes Pallas.

The windows on the lake and cours d’honneur sides are now replaced by stained- glass windows by the renowned Swiss glass craftsman Alexandre Cingria, illustrating with classical figures eight different themes: Art, Commerce, Industrie and Travail, titled for some reason in French, while Sapientia, Abundantia, Pax and Justitia, are in Latin.

Also, 14 different menus with caricatures by the Perso and Kelen team, are posted in the corners. These date from many Société des Nations press association annual dinners in the 1920s and 1930s. These events often involved press salutes to the delegates of the League of Nations, often in the shadow of looming European wars. A menu from 1930 shows press and national representatives greeting the rising sun of the “Etats-Unis d’Europe”. The best face was put on a bad situation, with clouds gathering.

Clouds still gather today on many geopolitical fronts, but these days the Bar de la Presse provides some, but not all, of the good cheer and high spirits that it used to for the denizens of the Palais des Nations.

David Winch (dwinch@unog.ch ) is an editor at UN Geneva.