Directory_and_Chronicle_1904 — Page 857

SHANGHAI

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To this 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 and the Fathers hope to introduce Marconi's system of wireless tele- graphy between Sicawei, Shanghai, and Woosung for signalling purposes. 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 £42,000 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 is a fine Masonic Hall recently rebuilt. Amongst the other conspicuous buildings may be mentioned those occupied by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, and the Imperial Chinese Railway Administration. The Lyceum Theatre, situate in Museum Road, is a fair building seating 700 persons, opened in January, 1874, and extensively altered and improved during 1901. 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 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 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. Another fine building is the Central Police Station in Foochow Road, large and spacious, of red brick with stone dressings, but lacking frontage and surround- ing space to set it off to full advantage. The new Town Hall and Public Markets were completed in 1899, and form the first block of buildings erected out of public funds for the public use. They occupy a prominent site, which is bounded by four roads; the principal front being upon the Nanking road, the main thoroughfare of the English Settlement. The plan divides the block into two portions, the moiety facing Nanking Road being for use by the European community as a Town Hall and Market and the portion in rear as a Chinese Market This latter is an airy open building 156 feet by 140 feet, two stories high, constructed entirely of iron and steel with concrete 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 sur- mounted by an octagonal dome 40 feet 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 brickwork with stone dressings, the steps being of concrete with stone handrails and ballusters, and encaustic tile floors to halls and landings. The Town Hall is also used by the Shanghai Volunteers for Drill purposes. It presents an imposing appearance, being 156 feet long, 80 wide, and 26 feet high to the tie- beams of roof, a massively timbered gallery crossing one end. The floor is of teak laid on steel joists and concrete. The open timbered roof is ceiled under the purlins almost up to the apex, with ribbed panels. The windows are of cathedral glass and the joinery and dado in this room are of polished teak. It is heated by large American stoves, and special attention has been given to the ventilation. Adjoining this Hall are other large rooms used for public meetings, a Volunteers' Club and other purposes.

The buildings are lighted throughout by incandescent 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 have been built from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. C. Mayne, C.E., the Municipal Engineer, and Mr. F. M. Gratton, F.R.I.B.A., of the firm of Morrison and Gratton of Shanghai, as joint architects and engineers. A New Mixed Court, an imposing structure, was pleted in 1899, and took the place of the disreputable building formerly used. A monu- ment to the memory of Mr. Å. 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

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