Coron (house)

Emerging during the Industrial Revolution, corons were a form of low-cost dwelling commonly found in coal mining and steelmaking regions of Wallonia and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

Originating as a form of vernacular architecture, their design and materials were increasingly upgraded over time and some were even constructed as parts of purpose-built model villages.

[1] The term originates from the Walloon language 'coron' (itself from Latin 'cornus' meaning 'corner') denoting the edge or corner of a street and, by extrapolation, a working-class district.

The emergence of the corons was instigated in the nineteenth century in metropolitan France’s Northern Departments now constituting the Hauts-de-France region (French pronunciation: [o d(ə) fʁɑ̃s], translating to "Upper France" in English; Picard: Heuts-d'Franche), following the territorial reform of French Regions (2014) from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy.

The activity was ubiquitous in the towns of the former Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin including Lewarde and the Fosse Arenberg [fr] sites.

Corons at Havré , Belgium built to accommodate coal miners
The Roofs of the Coron, houses of the mine workers by Belgian painter Constantin Meunier (1831–1905)