Park Hotel Makeover

So the glorious old Park Hotel on Nanjing West Road (Bubbling Well Road) is getting a tart up over the holidays – a ‘wall polishing project’ under state ‘projection’ (that might be meant to say ‘protection’ but who knows). All part of the general tarting up of Shanghai afore the dreaded EXPO hits town – there is of course a Haibao in the lobby – tasteful!

There’s no doubt the Park’s an iconic building of old Shanghai – along with the China United Building next door, it was part of the high rise growth of the International Settlement westwards and of course gave up some good views over the race course. The hotel (and it’s still a hotel) was designed by Ladislaus Hudec, like so many other great and some not far away like the Moore Memorial Church on Xizang Road (Thibet Road). The top floor originally had a nightclub with retracting roof so you could dance under the stars – doesn’t retract now which doesn’t matter as the white light and pollution means nobody has seen a star over Shanghai for ages anyway.No wise men will be guided to a stable in Hongkou this December I can assure you – they’ll need Sat-Nav.

If they’re polishing the outside fine – the interior lobby, once a major art-deco showpiece, was gutted and ruined ages ago to standard 3 star Chinese hotel style while the philistine advertising ‘profession’ has stuck neon ads on the roof as a final statement of barbarism over civilisation, a sport they excel at. However, still it stands, and for that small mercy we should be grateful. We’ll see what it looks like when the wrapping comes off – hopefully a welcome surprise and not just a boring 3-pack of socks as usual.