Named after the place du Château-Rouge, after a small manor house called the Château Rouge.
The ‘red castle’ was probably built between 1775 and 1795; in 1814 Joseph Bonaparte made it his command post for the defence of Paris. In 1847 a royal ordinance authorised the square and five streets on its park, and the house became a dance hall whose owner falsely claimed it was built for Gabrielle d’Estrées. It was demolished in 1889.