1924

SHANGHAI
715
In connection with the latter there is a time-ball on the French Bund. Under
the direction of this institution, a complete system of meteorological observations,
embracing the whole of the China Seas, is carried out. The Shanghai Club
occupies a large and elaborate building at one end of the English Bund. The
original structure cost £42,000, and at that is said to have ruined three contractors.
It was opened in 1864 and passed through a varied and peculiar history,
and finally, having in recent years Been found too small for its membership, new and im¬
posing premises were erected on the same site and opened in 1911. On October 22nd,
1904, the foundation of a new German Club was laid by Prince Adelbert of Prussia,
to replace the old Club Concordia. This building is a large edifice, with some
pretension to architectural display in German Kenaissance style. It was closed when
China joined the Allies. The present buildings of the British Consulate and Supreme
Court, at the other end of the Bund, were opened in 1872. Near them is a fine Masonic
Hall, recently partially re-built. Amongst the other conspicuous buildings may be men¬
tioned those occupied by the Russo-Asiatic Bank, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, the Yokohama Specie
Bank, Jardine, Matheson & Co., the Glen Line, the North China Daily News, the Eastern
Extension and Great Northern Telegraph Companies, the Palace Hotel, Astor House
Hotel, the offices of the Chinese Mutual Life Insurance Company, Ltd., and the
Union and McBain Buildings. A large scheme for building offices and residential flats
on the Nanking Road between Szechuan and Kiangse Roads was put in hand by the late
Mr. E. I. Ezra. The scheme includes the laying out of a new thoroughfare, the surrender
of land at the narrowest portion of Nanking Road and the erection of five blocks of
buildings. The Lyceum Theatre, situate in Museum Road, is a fair building
seating 700 persons, opened it. January, 1874, and extensively altered and improved
during 1901 and again in 1906. A new Custom-house was completed in 1893 on the site
of the old building on the Bund. It is in the Tudor style, of red brick with facings of
Sreen Ningpo stone, and has high pitched roofs covered with red French tiles. The
uildings have a frontage on the Bund of 135 feet, and on the Hankow Road of ] 55 feet.
In the centre of the main building a clock tower, supplied with a four-faced clock striking
the Westminster chimes, rises to a height of 110 feet, and divides the structure into two
wings. The building adds an imposing feature to the Bund, and is now undergoing
considerable extension. Another fine building is the Central Police Station in Foochow
Road, large and spacious, of red brick with stone dressings, but lacking frontage and
surrounding space to set it off to full advantage. The new Town Hall and Public Mar¬
kets were completed in 1899, and form the first block of buildings erected by public
funds for public use. They occupy a prominent site, which is bounded by four roads ;
the principal front being upon the Nanking Road, after the Bund the main thorough¬
fare of the Settlement. The plan divides the block into two portions, that facing
Nanking Road being for use by the European community as a Town Hall and Market,
n,nd the portion in the rear as a Chinese Market. This latter is an airy open building
156 feet by 140 feet, two storeys high, constructed entirely of iron and steel with con¬
crete floors and a roof glazed in such a manner as to admit the north light only. A
four-way staircase connects the two floors and is surmounted by an octagonal dome 40
feet in diameter. The front building is of red brick with stone dressings. The lower
floor consists of the European market, 156 feet by 80 feet, and an arcade, 156 feet by 45
feet, employed for the same purpose. A special and striking feature of the building is
the handsome staircase entered from Nanking Road and leading to the Town Hall on
the first floor. The walls and arches of this staircase are finished in clean red brick¬
work with stone dressings, the steps being of concrete with stone handrails and bailus-
ters, and encaustic tile floors to halls and landings. The Town Hall is also used by the
•Shanghai Yolunteers for drill purposes. It presents an imposing appearance, being
156 feet long, 80 wide, and 26 feet high to the tiebeams of the roof, a massively
timbered gallery crossing one end. The floor is of teak laid on steel joists and concrete.
The windows are of cathedral glass and the joinery and dado in this room are of
polished teak. Adjoining this Hall are other large rooms used for public meetings, a
Yolunteers’ Club and other purposes. The buildings are lighted throughout by incandes¬
cent electric lights, the Town Hall having six 300 candle-power incandescent lamps
besides the numerous side lights. The whole of the buildings form an effective group,
although the narrowness of the streets on the East and West sides considerably
detracts from the possibility of obtaining a good view of the block. They took about
-eighteen months to erect and were built from the designs and under the superinten¬
dence of Mr. C. Mayne, c.e., the Municipal Engineer, and Mr. F. M. Gratton, f.r.i.b.a.,
of the firm of Morrison & Gratton, of Shanghai, as joint architects and engineers.