Shanghai Club (1886)

Title : Shanghai Club (1886)

Topic : Virtual Shanghai

Year : 1886

Location : Shanghai: International Settlement

Date (start) : 1886

Nature : B&W Photo

Support image : Paper

Caption on support : Handwritten caption: 'The Shanghai Club erected about 1863. Cost about 30,000 £. Rent 200 £ per annum. Number of members about 400 mostly English', 'Shanghai 1886'.

Information data : The Shanghai Club was the most exclusive club in Shanghai. It was established in 1864 firstly as a four-storeyed building in the so-called 'East-India style' (or neo-colonial). The old building was demolished in 1908. The new Club opened in 1911 as a seven-storyed building in Neo-classical style. The main marble-floored hall, over 40 feet high, has six Ionic columns which would have fitted right in with London's club scene. On the upper floors were a card room, a writing room, dining room, a ballroom, and above that a number of bedrooms for resident members. All floors were linked by twin elevators which ascended in the middle of the curving marble staircase. The club was most famous for its Long Bar, reputedly the longest in the world. Source: North-China Herald, Feb 20, 1909, pp. 433-4, 453-4; Jan 13, 1911, pp. 61, 77-81

Keywords : building;club;Bund;entertainment;leisure

URL :
http://www.chia.chinesemuseum.com.au/objects/D001653.htm

Street name : Bund