DIEPPE, a seaport of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-Inférieure, on the English Channel, 38 m. N. of Rouen, and 105 m. N.W. of Paris by the Western railway. Pop. (1906) 22,120. It is situated at the mouth of the river Arques in a valley bordered on each side by steep white cliffs. The main part of the town lies to the west, and the fishing suburb of Le Pollet to the east of the river and harbour. The sea-front of Dieppe, which in summer attracts large numbers of visitors, consists of a pebbly beach backed by a handsome marine promenade. Dieppe has a modern aspect; its streets are wide and its houses, in most cases, are built of brick. Two squares side by side and immediately to the west of the outer harbour form the nucleus of the town, the Place Nationale, overlooked by the statue of Admiral A. Duquesne, and the Place St Jacques, named after the beautiful Gothic church which stands in its centre. The Grande Rue, the busiest and handsomest street, leads westward from the Place Nationale. The church of St Jacques was founded in the 13th century, but consists in large measure of later workmanship and was in some portions restored in the 19th century. The castle, overlooking the beach from the summit of the western cliff, was erected in 1435. The church of Notre-Dame de Bon Secours on the opposite cliff, and the church of St Remy, of the 16th and 17th centuries, are other noteworthy buildings. A well-equipped casino stands at the west end of the sea-front. The public institutions include the subprefecture, tribunals of first instance and commerce, a chamber of commerce, a communal college and a school of navigation.
Dieppe has one of the safest and deepest harbours on the English Channel. A curved passage cut in the bed of the Arques and protected by an eastern and a western jetty gives access to the outer harbour, which communicates at the east end by a lockgate with the Bassin Duquesne and the Bassin Bérigny, and at the west end by the New Channel, with an inner tidal harbour and two other basins. Vessels drawing 20 ft. can enter the new docks at neap tide. A dry-dock and a gridiron are included among the repairing facilities of the port. The harbour railway station is on the north-west quay of the outer harbour alongside which the steamers from Newhaven lie. The distance of Dieppe from Newhaven, with which there has long been daily communication, is 64 m. The imports include silk and cotton goods, thread, oil-seeds, timber, coal and mineral oil; leading exports are wine, silk, woollen and cotton fabrics, vegetables and fruit and flint-pebbles. The average annual value of imports for the five years 1901-1905 was £4,916,000 (£4,301,000 for the years 1896-1900); the exports were valued at £9,206,000 (£7,023,000 for years 1896-1900). The industries comprise shipbuilding, cotton-spinning, steam-sawing, the manufacture of machinery, porcelain, briquettes, lace, and articles in ivory and bone, the production of which dates from the 15th century. There is also a tobacco factory of some importance. The fishermen of Le Pollet, to whom tradition ascribes a Venetian origin, are among the main providers of the Parisian market. The sea-bathing attracts many visitors in the summer. Two miles to the north-east of the town is the ancient camp known as the Cité de Limes, which perhaps furnished the nucleus of the population of Dieppe.