I was writing about an old villa in recent post “Portrait of an old neighbour”. Like many cases in Shanghai 1920’s and 1930’s, the developer did not built one house… but two next to each other. This house has a twin sister, actually located on 132 Route Kaufmann (as opposed to 130 for the old neighbour). I was mentioning in my original post that the building was of high quality and would make a great renovation. As it turns out that the sister house has been fully renovated and is in fact a well known bar, Cotton’s, located in the next house on the street.
Since both houses were nearly identical at origin, comparing pictures taken in both houses gives great ideas on how this old neighbor could be revived into today’s standard. At the same time, it also shows the extend of renovation and transformation that has been done to the house that is now the bar. Most of the renovation was not done by the current house tenant, but a few years before for the previous tenant, a tea house.
The house porch has been little modified except with the addition of an external door. The front steps have also been changed for something shiny and new. Concrete floor (with probably the same circle shape) has been covered with wood floor.
The double wooden shutters have been replaced by a single one, that was probably easier to build than the original one. This also probably means that all windows frames have also been replaced.
Came across your blog thru a twitter posting and must say I am amazed. I lived in SH for a while and fell in love with the architecture and French Concession. Great blog – keep these photos coming and store them well because one day these will be all that left – the city gov is razing houses almost daily.
My grandfather, Carlos Lubeck, had the house at 132 Rue Kaufman built for his family by the French firm of Leonard & Veysseyre and moved into the house in 1923.