Directory_and_Chronicle_1893 — Page 503

SHANGHAI

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expense of the Chinese Government, one of them extending for seventeen miles into the country; but, excepting those close to the settlement, they have now been turned into ploughed fields. An inland carriage road to Woosung, made at the expense of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co. and others, has now also been reduced to a narrow footpath. The foreshore in front of the settlement has been raised, turfed, and planted with shrubs. The trees planted some years ago having now attained a good height, and several more imposing buildings having been completed, the English and French Bunds form as magnificent a boulevard as any in the East.

Many foreign houses, nearly all of them with several mow of garden ground, have been erected near the outside roads, especially on that leading to the Bubbling Well, which is the main outlet from the settlement, and from which most of the other roads branch off. This road and its extension to Sicawei is planted with trees on both sides, forming a fine avenue of over five miles in length. A small but well laid out and admirably kept Public Garden was formed about 1868 on land recovered from the river in front of the British Consulate. It is now proposed to considerably extend its area by reclaiming the foreshore. A general Public Garden, eight mow in extent, by the bank of the Soochow Creek was opened in December, 1890.

Immense sums have been wasted in various attempts to drain the settlements, principally from the want of skilled direction; but the great difficulties in this matter, arising from the low lying and level nature of the ground, have now been fairly Overcoine. The settlements are well provided with telegraphic fire alarms. The desire of the Municipal Councils to keep the monopoly in their own hands retarded for many years the inauguration of water works, but a public company has now been established, which furnishes a continuous supply of filtered water at moderate rates. The Electric light was introduced in 1882, and lamps have been erected on the principal thoroughfares and wharves.

Shanghai can boast of several fine buildings of various and varied styles of architecture. Trinity Cathedral, erected from a design by Sir Gilbert Scott, is one of the finest specimens of modern ecclesiastical architecture to be found out of Europe. The foundation stone was laid on 16th May, 1866, and the Church was opened for public worship on 1st August, 1869. It is Gothic of the thirteenth century, 152 feet fong, 58 feet wide, and 54 feet from the floor to the apex of the nave. The structure was not completed, however, until 1892, when the spire was erected, the cross being placed on the top on the 4th October of that year. It attains a total height of 160 feet, and, like the body of the edifice, is built of red brick, with stone dressings. The founda- tion of the spire was laid by Bishop of Mid-China on the 19th August, 1891. There is a fine Roman Catholic Church in the French Concession called St. Joseph's, built in 1862, and another in Hongkew known as the Church of the Sacred Heart, the Union Church on the Soochow Creek, also a Chapel belonging to the London Mission and one to the American Episcopalians, and a very pretty and prettily situated Seamen's Church at Pootung, besides several Mission Chapels for natives. The Jesuit Fathers have an extensive Mission establishment anl orphanages at Sicawei, where a mission has existed for over a hundred years. The present Church was built in 1851. To the mission is attached a museur of natural history, etc., and a valuable scientific observatory, in connection with which th is a time-ball on the French Bund. Under the direction of this institution, a complete stem meteorological observations, embracing the whole

of the China Seas, is now carried out. The Shanghai Club occupies a large and elaborate building at one end of the English Bund. It cost Tls. 120,000, and at that is said to have ruined three contractors. It was opened in 1864 and has passed through a varied and peculiar history. The present buildings of the British Consulate and Supreme Court at the other end of the Bund were opened in 1873. Near to them there is a really fine Masonic Hall. Amongst the other conspicuous buildings may be mentioned those occupied by the Oriental and Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporations and the Chartered Mercantile Bank. The Lyceum Theatre, situate in Museum Road, is a fair building seating 600 persons, opened in January, 1871. The members of the German (Concordia) Club have also a handsome little Theatre attached to their premises in the Canton Road. A new Custom House is in course of erection on the site of the old building on the Bund. It is in the Tudor style, of red brick with facings of green Ningpo stone, and will have high pitched roofs covered with red French tiles. The buildings will have a frontage on the Bund of 135 feet and on the Hankow Road of 155 feet. In the centre of the main building a clock tower will rise to a height of 110 feet, which will divide the structure into two wings. The elevation is a very handsome one, and the new building will add an imposing feature to the Bund. Å monument to the memory of Mr. A. R. Margary, of the British Consular service, who