In 1861, the construction of the Garnier Opera led to the demolition of a jeu de paume hall (a racquet sport, the forerunner of tennis) located in the Passage Sandrié in Paris’s 9th arrondissement. Napoleon III authorised the club to move to the north-west corner of the Tuileries Garden. The new jeu de paume hall, built by the architect Melchior Viraut, was inaugurated on 29 January 1862. Its construction was based on the decorative principles of the neighbouring Orangerie building, designed nine years earlier, for reasons of symmetry and urban composition.