Head Post Office - Shanghai - 1924
Cnr North Soochow Rd & North Szechuen Rd, Shanghai.
Dominating the northern bank of the Soochow Creek, this landmark structure was the purpose-built main post office for Shanghai's International Settlement. Prior to its construction, the mail services for Shanghai had been provided by seven separate 'national' post offices (British, French, German, Japanese, Russian, American and Chinese). This inefficient system was overhauled by the Directorate General of Posts and the design for the new central post office went to an open competition. The winning design came from RE Stewardson of Messrs Stewardson, Spence and Watson, a Shanghai-based firm of architects.
This is an enormous building with a mix of western architectural styles; it has two classical street frontages featuring 50ft high fluted colonnades meeting at, for me, a largely underwhelming corner entrance with a clock tower topped off by a scalloped baroque cupola. A more impressive 'back' entrance along the corner of Tiendong Rd and North Szechuen Rd can be seen at fellow flickrite geoff-inoz's photo at www.flickr.com/photos/geoff-inoz/9156557562 ). The classical statuary depicts the Greek gods Hermes, Eros and Aphrodite, To me, it looks very Central European, rather than British or imperial.
It now houses Shanghai's Postal Museum.
Head Post Office - Shanghai - 1924
Cnr North Soochow Rd & North Szechuen Rd, Shanghai.
Dominating the northern bank of the Soochow Creek, this landmark structure was the purpose-built main post office for Shanghai's International Settlement. Prior to its construction, the mail services for Shanghai had been provided by seven separate 'national' post offices (British, French, German, Japanese, Russian, American and Chinese). This inefficient system was overhauled by the Directorate General of Posts and the design for the new central post office went to an open competition. The winning design came from RE Stewardson of Messrs Stewardson, Spence and Watson, a Shanghai-based firm of architects.
This is an enormous building with a mix of western architectural styles; it has two classical street frontages featuring 50ft high fluted colonnades meeting at, for me, a largely underwhelming corner entrance with a clock tower topped off by a scalloped baroque cupola. A more impressive 'back' entrance along the corner of Tiendong Rd and North Szechuen Rd can be seen at fellow flickrite geoff-inoz's photo at www.flickr.com/photos/geoff-inoz/9156557562 ). The classical statuary depicts the Greek gods Hermes, Eros and Aphrodite, To me, it looks very Central European, rather than British or imperial.
It now houses Shanghai's Postal Museum.