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There are nowadays numerous and diverse cultural sites within gentrifying neighbourhoods. This paper highlights the connections between these sites and their urban contexts. It aims to question the gentrification process with regard to the definition and role urban actors give to culture. The paper is centred on a Parisian cultural site, the ‘Maison des métallos’. Firstly, it presents the actors and processes that led to the emergence of this site within a gentrifying district. Secondly, it underlines the gap between the initial project on the one hand, and the actual cultural programming and the visitors’ profiles on the other hand. Thirdly, it analyzes the forms of cohabitation/conflict between social groups that take place in and around the sites. In short, one could say that these gaps reveal various and divergent views of culture and of the city.