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We observe one aspect of the urban memory of Jerusalem as starting with the cities particular urban fabric: that of the old city. The approach of the urban memory has to be considered as a historiographic examination which consists in broadening the historical approach of territory to a sociology of urban appropriations. The paper starts from the permanence and the image of stability of the old city to observe the modalities of urban appropriations by Jews and Arabs. First, we describe the way in which British administrators and architects during the Mandate established urban esthetics. This Western aesthetic was then appropriated and transmitted by local actors, both Israeli and Palestinian. The analysis does not only approach the transformations of space and the conflicts of memory around the symbolical values of the Holy City. It examines the historicity of memory when subjected to contemporary economic challenges as well as considering the place of social temporalities within the writing of urban history.