Shanghai’s New Recreation Ground, 1903

A plan showing the commissioned design for the New Recreation Ground, Shanghai by W. Innis Stuckley, landscape Gardener. Drawn for and published by The Shanghai Municipal Council in 1903 and what became the Hongkew (Hongkou) Recreation Ground and Park.

I am not sure, but I don’t believe the landscape gardener for the project was in Shanghai at the time or ever visited – William Innis Stuckley is listed as having offices in 1902 at Piccadilly Mansions, Piccadilly Circus, London. This is not that odd, many architects and designers never actually visited China but sent in plans from afar. Innis Stuckley appears to have spent 13 years with Mr. H. E. Milner at 46 Dyne Road, Brondesbury (out past Hampstead).

In some ways the use of Innis Stuckley shows that the more recent fad in the PRC for “Starchitects” at all costs (and obviously, with the likes of Hadid etc, regardless of the ultimate suitability of their creations to the surrounding environment or otherwise) is nothing new. Innes Stuckley was a landscape designer of the moment having laid out gardens at quite a few locations including the Edgwarebury hotel in Elstree, Hertfordshire (later to become the home of textile designer Laura Ashley and now a hotel called “Laura Ashley The Manor” and with Innes Stuckley’s original gardens brought back to life).