During the 18th century, the 387 butchers in Paris dependant on 15 slaughterhouses, and the hygienic problems of moving livestock through the streets caused the government to progressively move this activity further out. In 1810, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered five new slaughterhouses to be built outside the city limits. Popincourt was finally torn down around 1838 bacause it went against the ordinance prohibiting slaughterhouses to operate within populated areas.

Today the Quartier Voltaire is the hub of the 11th: Rue de la Roquette, Avenue Ledru Rollin, Boulevard Voltaire and Avenue Parmentier all collide at the Place Leon Blum. You can get to practically any part of the 11th from here: The restaurants and night-life of Rue Jean Pierre Timbaud to the North, the bistros and entertainment of boulevard Voltaire to the West, or the tiny wine bars around the Rue de Lappe and the furniture district to the east down the Avenue Ledru Rollin.

Despite its transitory nature, there are a number of cultural attractions to be found in the quartier Voltaire: a tap dance school on the Rue Breguet, and experimental theater on the Passage Dallery, the Jewish Social Center ("Centre Social Juif") on the Rue de Popincourt, to name just a few. Many of the current residents fear the character of the Quartier Voltaire is imperiled by the influx of wholesale textile companies and there is a growing movement to restore and preserve the area's older buildings.