RAS Weekender – Saturday, 13th June 2009
Meet outside the Park Hotel, 170 West Nanjing Road at 9.30 a.m.
Cars, Clubs and Couture: A Walk with Peter Hibbard
Peter Hibbard will re-visit a walk he published in the Time Out Guide to Shanghai in 2006. Things have certainly changed over the last couple of years and by tracing the route described below, with some interesting deviations into surviving old lanes, Peter will highlight what has changed and what the future holds for some areas that are currently being redeveloped and those likely to be so in the near future.
The walk will take around two and a half hours and will terminate at the junction of South Maoming Road and Huaihai Road, near the Okura Garden Hotel.
Some things in Shanghai just don’t change - or not that much anyway. The area around Nanjing Road West, which was largely developed as a swanky commercial and residential section of the former Western District in the 1920s and early 1930s, is again being redeveloped in much the same manner - and a cocktail of historical threads and tracks remain. From its construction, beginning in 1862, the former Bubbling Well Road was the place for that, horse-driven, evening drive and by the 1920s it was home to the classiest car showrooms and garages in town.
Just look what’s on offer (price on application) in the showroom next to the Marriott - seductive Ferrari’s and Maserati’s yearning for a diminutive Shanghai femme fatale, wearing plasma screen-sized sunglasses, to take a ride. On the eastern side of Huangpi Bei Lu the clock tower of the former Shanghai Race Club, known as ‘Big Bertie’, after the club’s chairman Bertie Burkill, stills keeps as bad time as it did when it was installed in 1934. The Shanghai Automobile Club, of which Bertie was a founding member, used to parade their dressed-up cars on the racecourse grounds.
Head westwards on Nanjing Xi Lu where, just across the street, Ciro’s Plaza (No. 388) stands on the site of one of old Shanghai’s classiest night clubs, Ciro’s - naturally, owned by the legendary Sir Victor Sassoon. Sassoon was also big at the race club and many of his brethren were buried at the Jewish cemetery where the JW Marriott now stands. Carry on up the road to the Shanghai TV Station with its huge LCD display at No. 651 - set on the site of the snobby British Country Club, where British Jews like Sassoon were given the brush off.
Almost opposite, however, the building at No. 722 briefly housed the Jewish Club in the early 1940s. Opened in 1929, as a sumptuous London-style club, it was originally the home of another horse racing club before being taken over as club premises for the US Fourth Marines.
Look behind the advertising signs at No. 702, to spot the intricate Moorish 1916 features of the Star Garage Building next door. The garage, once owned by another Sephardic Jew, Edward Ezra, used to tout Dodge and Hupmobile cars in its showrooms. Cross the road and weave up Wujiang Lu, its winding course once that of a creek, and take a left on Shimen Yi Lu. This was old Shanghai’s premiere fashion street, formerly known as Yates Road, renowned for its lingerie and lace and for the deftness of its tailors in copying the latest Paris fashions. The Brits knew it as ‘the land of thousand nighties.’ Its wares speak polyester today.
Carry on and take a right at the Four Seasons Hotel onto Weihai Lu. The high rise tower opposite the hotel houses the headquarters of SAIC, the controlling partner in deals with car giants VW and GM. Just as it was 70 years ago, car parts mechanically materialize from the neighbouring streets and alleys. Take another left at Maoming Bei Lu, the ‘land of car parts,’ past a property (No. 39) once owned by the Kadoorie family and home to the World Jewish Youth Organisation. Cross over Yan’an Zhong Lu onto Maoming Nan Lu, passing an old garage on the eastern corner and the Lyceum Theatre (No. 57), the past home of the Amateur Dramatic Club, before ending up at the former French Club - now the Okura Garden Hotel. The over-built block with its Italian Baroque style arches at the back of the hotel on Changle Lu, which looks as if it had classy tenants in the past, was nothing more than a showy service garage. Reliving its past, couture is back in the former shops of Sir Victor Sassoon’s Cathay Estate - now reborn as the ‘Parade on Maoming Lu’ opposite the hotel.
DONATION: 100 Rmb for members, 200 Rmb for guests. Money raised from this walk will go towards restoring some of our historic Journals of the North China Branch of the RAS that are currently in a very poor condition.
Strictly limited to a maximum number of 20 participants on a first come, first served basis – RAS members will be given priority. Membership applications and renewals will be available on the morning. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption.
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.