Anting Lu Archives - Shanghailander

Leaving Route Kaufmann

Today was a major change in Shanghai for me. After 12 years of living in Old Shanghai houses (nearly all my stay in Shanghai), we finally moved to a modern high rise. My first Old Shanghai home was at the corner of Rue Lafayette (today Fuxing Lu) and Rue Pottier (today BaoQing Lu), beginning Avenue Pétain (today HengShan Lu), where I staid one year. More information about this great former banker’s home is available in post First home in Old Shanghai. We then moved to the end of a lane of the tranquil Route Kaufmann. There are several posts on this blog about buildings on this great street (Follow this link to find them).

Passage 81 Route Kaufmann (Anting Lu 81), was the entrance to a private lane, Route d’Adina. This small street has no name today, only Anting Lu 81. Living there was not merely a time travel, it was practically a time trap.

Waking up to the sounds of birds in the surrounding garden, at the very end of a quiet lane felt like living in Old Shanghai. Although we shared the house with 4 -5 neighbors (including some really evil ones), we had a 2 bedroom apartment in an old house, with most of the original doors, ceilings and windows. This apartment was just like a time machine and having taken it empty, we filled it slowly but surely with lot’s of Old Shanghai treasures found here and there.

I have often though about the original (wealthy) owners of the house (probably Chinese from my research). With the level of details, I assume they took great care in building this Spanish Revival house around 1936. Unfortunately for them, by 1937 the Japanese attacked Shanghai, invading the concessions in 1941. Then the Chinese revolution came in 1949 and the house was probably confiscated, if the original owners were still living in it. I can probably say that we lived longer in there than the original owner, while really caring about the house. Unfortunately, some of the others inhabitant were not so careful

When I moved in, the house was in a good state, though it clearly was not really cared about. It was really similar to Eastern Europe communism confiscation of bourgeois property, sharing a beautiful building among numerous people who used it without care. Unfortunately, in the last 10 years, needed maintenance was lacking, including massive roof repair (to stop water leaks !), water proofing the walls, pruning the trees that obscured the house and cleaning the garden that became a jungle. Since nobody was willing to do anything… it became clear at some point that we needed to get away. We waited as much as we could, but finally moved yesterday.

The major change is that we moved to a high rise. This is definitely a jump in time, a slide from Shanghai 1930’s straight to modern Shanghai. The great advantage is the view, overlooking Xu Jia Hui Park. We have moved to modernity but not left the French Concession, now living at the corner of Route Destelan (GuangYuan Lu) and Route Prosper Paris (Tianping lu), nor left our lovely furnitures and other items. Moving to modernity will surely not be the end of the passion for Old Shanghai nor of this blog… which is now turning 10 years old.

Meet the twin sister

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 Kaufman, next to the original one at 130 Route Kaufman. 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 N132, the house that is now the bar. Most of the renovation was not done by the current house tenant, but a few years before.

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.

renovated inside doors — Original Kitchen doors

Wood floors on all floors have been changed for new. Although the replacement is nice, is does not have the look nor the quality of the original inlay. As seen on picture left, the inside doors and door frames have old been for new and shiny. Looking at the state of the original ones in the non-renovated version it seems that a good cleaning and a nice wood varnishing would have allowed to keep the original doors that have sustained 80 years of mistreatment. In any case, the replacement fit more or less the original profile though they had a classical touch to a building that is definitely not classical style.

Addition of a classical touch was also done on the inside balcony. The original one was probably the same as next door… but surely not the current one. It’s interesting how the banister has been transformed by adding under it small colons that were not needed since they did not exist in the original staircase.

All in all, the renovation of 132 Route Kaufmann is not really museum class, as the material used do not really match the quality of the original. A different (and out of place) style has been introduced, putting pieces of classical castle style to a 20’s house. It seems the renovation was more following the fantasy of the owner than the original building. However, most of the original design has been kept, keeping the general feeling of the house intact and giving real atmosphere to the bar. One of the rare places with real firewood in Shanghai, Cotton’s was still one of my favorite hangout until it closed down in 2023.

While researching these two houses, I realized that there are about 10 similar houses in the neighborhood. They were all designed by French architecture firm Léonard & Veysseyre, built by the International Saving Society (ISS) and rented out by companies to house their managers. The house on 132 Route Kaufmann was inhabited by Carlos Lubeck, a director of the French Tram and Electricity company (CFTEE) (see post about the Lubeck family for more details).

The house on 130 Route Kaufmann was rumored to have been the house of Ma Ying-chi / 马英驰, the minister of Justice of Republican China (see post “Portrait of an Old Neighbour” for more details)

Portrait of an old neighbour

Living on Route Kaufmann (today Anting Lu), I have spent a lot of time looking around the neighboring old buildings. This street is a short one, a side street from Route Herve de Seyes (Yong Jia Lu) and Route Joseph Frelupt (Jiang Guo lu). It is located in the Western part of the French Concession, that was really developed in the mid-late 1930’s. The name in French on the 1927’s map is Route (and not Rue) indicating that they were rather country roads than urban streets. This is similar to Bubbling Well Road (Today Nanjing Xi Lu) in the International Settlement. As this area was not really urbanized, developers could buy large properties and build large garden villas.

Many wealthy foreigners and Chinese families lived in this quiet and relaxed neighborhood. Since most of these villas had garages, people living in the area had surely cars, and the streets were probably filled with 1930’s Cadillac and other Ford and Renault imported from Europe and the US. The atmosphere then with the streets lined up with walls masking great brand new villas must have been quite similar to today’s HongQiao area with the Villa’s compounds.

Most of those villas are now closed to the public with iron gates stopping the occasional visitor to come in. As I live in the neighborhood and spend a lot of time around with my camera, I am becoming well known by the old people mostly living in the villas. A little bit of Shanghainese language often does the trick and allows me to take pictures without disturbing anybody. I recently got a chance to get into the house on 130 Route Kaufman and take some pictures.

This house is very similar to houses of the same period built in France. It was designed by Vesseyre & Leonard, along with 2 other houses on each side that are of similar style. The entrance has seen better days but still keeps up appearances. I particularly enjoy the covered front that is creating an outside entrance hall. Like similar houses in France, shutters were installed on ground floor windows. It is quite rare to still see them in today’s Shanghai.

I then moved to the inside, while talking with a lady living there. The picture left is the actual entrance door, still in place. The round part on the top was probably a glass and metal ornament. The glass must have been smashed at some point and replaced by the cheaper piece of wood. It is typical from Leonard & Veysseyre style.

Original inside doors are still in the building, matching the pattern of the entrance door. The far door leads to the what is the kitchen today and I think was the main kitchen in the old time. It has a back door, so that domestics could come into the kitchen without using the main entrance door, using the back service entrance instead. The nearest door leads to the bathroom… with appliances from the 1930’s still in use without have been cleaned for a long time.

Moving up through the stair case, it is easy to realize the money and time spent into creating this house. After years of over use and neglect, the staircase still looks great, including the small inside balcony. The house does not seem to have structural damages apart from water leaking over the main entrance. It is always amazing to see how these houses have survived decades of overuse and neglect and are still standing. People living in this houses mostly have no idea of the value and craft that was put into building them. Then often pay very little if anything at all to live here, so why bother taking care of a building that is just (in their mind) an old ruin? Similar houses in France that have been well maintained still looks grand and those in Shanghai could be turned back to the same grandeur.

This house on 130 Route Kaufman is rumored to have been the house of Ma Ying-chi / 马英驰, the minister of Justice of Republican China. This is highly possible as the area was inhabited by Kuomingtang heads, including Chiang Kai-Shek, TV Soong, HH Kung & Soong Ailing and Kuomintang Chief Spy Dai Li / 戴笠. The clone house on 132 Route Kaufman was the house of one of the directors of the French Tramway and Electricity company (CFTEE).