4th arrondissement (Hôtel-de-Ville)

The 4th arrondissement, officially Hôtel-de-Ville, takes its name from the Paris city hall on the Right Bank. It covers about 1.6 km²: the southern Marais, the area around Saint-Paul down to the Place de la Bastille, the eastern half of the Île de la Cité with Notre-Dame, and the whole Île Saint-Louis. Its four quartiers are Saint-Merri, Saint-Gervais, Arsenal and Notre-Dame.

It had 27,332 residents in the 2023 legal population (Insee), about 17,100 per km². Residents are older than the Paris average: 18% were 65 or over in the 2023 census.

The 4th belongs to the Paris Centre sector. Its town hall services are at the Mairie de Paris Centre, 2 rue Eugène Spuller, in the 3rd. The Hôtel de Ville itself is the seat of the City of Paris, not a district town hall.

• Saint-Merri and Beaubourg: the Centre Pompidou is here, but the building is closed for renovation; the centre says it is running programmes at partner venues from 2025 to 2030. The surrounding streets have galleries, cafés and the Tour Saint-Jacques square.
• Southern Marais: rue des Rosiers, rue Vieille-du-Temple and rue des Archives are lively shopping and restaurant streets. Rue des Rosiers is the historic heart of a Jewish neighbourhood. The Place des Vosges, on the border with the 3rd, is one of the oldest planned squares in the city.
• Saint-Paul and Arsenal: quieter streets of old houses and courtyards between rue Saint-Antoine and the Seine, down to the Place de la Bastille.
• The islands: the eastern Île de la Cité with Notre-Dame cathedral and the Square Jean-XXIII behind it, and the residential Île Saint-Louis, with 17th-century buildings and few cars.

The riverside Parc Rives de Seine on the Right Bank quays is closed to cars and used for walking, cycling and events.

• Métro: line 1 runs under rue de Rivoli and rue Saint-Antoine (Hôtel de Ville, Saint-Paul, Bastille). Line 11 serves Châtelet, Hôtel de Ville and Rambuteau. Line 7 stops at Châtelet, Pont Marie and Sully–Morland, and line 4 at Cité on the Île de la Cité. Bastille, on the border with the 11th and 12th, adds lines 5 and 8.
• RER: Châtelet–Les Halles (RER A, B, D) is just across the border in the 1st, and Saint-Michel–Notre-Dame (RER B, C) across the river.

The 4th is in the Paris Centre limited traffic zone (from 5 November 2024), although the zone excludes the islands and the Right Bank quays. Walking and cycling are the norm for short trips.

Most homes are flats in old buildings. In the 2023 census, 65% of main residences were in buildings completed before 1919, and 56% had one or two rooms.

Of the 23,100 dwellings counted, 20% were second homes or occasional-use flats and 12% vacant, so the number of permanently occupied homes is lower than the building stock suggests. Among main residences, 59% were rented, with 17% furnished and 12% social housing. Owner-occupiers made up 33%.

Flats on the islands and around the Place des Vosges rarely come onto the rental market. Rent control applies: check the reference rent with the City of Paris tool, and see OLAP's estimates of market rents by quartier for early 2026.

Children under 15 were 10.2% of residents in 2023 (Paris: 12.8%). Green space is limited but well located: the Square Louis-XIII in the Place des Vosges, the Square Jean-XXIII behind Notre-Dame, the Square de la Tour-Saint-Jacques, the Jardin des Rosiers – Joseph-Migneret and the car-free Seine quays.

Crèche requests and school enrolment are handled by the Mairie de Paris Centre. Public schools are allocated by home address.