Directory_and_Chronicle_1898 — Page 575

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SHANGHAI

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 long, 585 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 foundation of the spire was laid by the 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. There are also the Union Church on the Soochow Creek, a handsome church with spire and bells belonging to the American Methodist Episcopal Mission in Yunnan Road, 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 and 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 museum of natural history, etc., and an astronomical and meteorological observatory. 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 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 fine Masonic Hall. Amongst the other conspicuous buildings may be mentioned those occupied by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and the Chartered Bank of India. The Lyceum Theatre, situate in Museum Road, is a fair buikling seating 700 persons, opened in January, 1874. The members of the German (Concordia) Club have also a handsome little theatre attached to their premises in the Cton Road. A new Custom House was com- pleted in 1893 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 has high pitched roofs covered with red French tiles. The buildings 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, 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 elevation is a very handsome one. Mr. John Chambers was the architect, and the new building adds an imposing feature to the Bund. A monument to the memory of Mr. A. R. Margary, of the British Consular service, who was murdered by Chinese in Yunnan, was unveiled in June, 1880, and a statue of the late Sir Harry Parkes, British Minister to Peking, was erected in 1890. The principal buildings on the French Concession are the Municipal Hall and the Consulate. A bronze statue of Admiral Protet, who was killed when directing an attack on Nan-yao on 17th May, 1862, stands in front of the Municipal Hall.

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Amng the institutions of the place may be mentioned the Volunteer Defence Force consisting of Field Artillery, Light Horse, Engineers and Rifle Brigade, the latter comprising a battalion of four companies. Originally formed in 1861 it gradually went to decay, until the fear of attack after the Massacre at Tientsin in 1870 caused its revival with considerable vigour. It again dwindled in numbers, but the last re-organisation under Major Holliday proved successful, there being now about three hundred members, almost all of whom are effective. This exclusive of the Home Guard and Band. The infantry is armed with the Lee- Metford rifle. The Fire Brigade, which is entirely volunteer, consists of seven Engine and two Hook and Ladder Companies. It is pronounced to be the most. efficient Brigade out of the United States. There is a Hospital for foreigners, the building for which, although only completed in 1877, is already found inadequate and so badly situated that a new one is proposed. There are also several Hospitals for natives. The other public institutions may be enumerated as, a Subscription Library containing about 15,000 volumes, a branch of the Royal Asiatic Societ with the nucleus of a Museum, a Masonic Club, a Sailors' Home, a Polytechnic

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