Directory_and_Chronicle_1908 — Page 854

SHANGHAI

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Shanghai can boast of several fine buildings of various and varied styles of architecture. The first English church, built in 1847, did not long exist, for in 1850 the roof fell in. It was however patched up, and continued in use till 1862, when it gave way to a building professedly only temporary. On the 16th May, 1866, accordingly, the foundation stone was laid of a new building which was opened for public worship in August, 1869. Although at the time considered extravagantly large, the congregation has already outgrown the accommodation. It possesses a fine organ, and a full and highly trained choir. It is Gothic of the thirteenth century, according to the practice of the day, 152 feet long, 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. There is a 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 church with spire and bells in Yunnan Road belonging to the American Methodist Episcopal Mission, a chapel belonging to the London Mission, and two to the American Episcopalians, and recently erected in the Broadway, Hongkew, the church of St. Andrew, which besides serving as a Seamen's church, acts also as a chapel of ease to the Anglican Cathedral, 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 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 telegraphy 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 carried out. The Shanghai Club occupies a large and elaborate building at one end of the English Burd. It cost £42,000 and at that is said to have ruined three contractors. It was opened in 1854 and has passed through a varied and peculiar history. It has long been found too small for its membership and the erection of a new Club House on the same side has been decided on. On the 22nd October, 1904, by Prince Adelbert of Prussia, was laid the foundation of a new German Club to replace the old Club Concordia. The new building, is a large edifice, with some pretension to architectural display in German Renaissance style. 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 partially rebuilt. Amongst the other conspicuous buildings may be mentioned those occupied by the Russo-Chinese Bank, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, a new building for the Eastern Extension and Great Northern Telegraph Companies, the new "Palace" Hotel, still in progress, and several blocks of mercantile offices regarding which it is understood that the Municipality has interlicted the excessive height lately become fashionable in America. 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 and again in 1996. 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 late 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 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 thoroughfare of the 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

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