Building Shanghai's Dreamworld: Elite Ballrooms of the 1920s-1930s
The Majestic Hotel Ballroom, one of the great ballrooms of the 1920s, which unfortunately was destroyed along with the hotel in the 1930s
This year I participated in a workshop on heritage conservation at Tongji University organized by Dr. Rosemary Wakeman, which resulted in a special issue of the journal Built Heritage. I contributed a talk and an article to the journal on the subject of 1920s-1930s interwar era ballrooms. As I write in the article, the designers of these ballrooms constitute a veritable Who’s Who of Shanghai-based architects including the Spaniard Abelardo Lafuente, Englishman George Leopold “Tug” Wilson, Austro-Hungarian WWI veteran Ladislaus Hudec, Frenchman Paul Veysseyres, and Chinese architect C. S. Young (Yang Xiliu).
My article focuses on the history of seven ballrooms: the Astor House and Majestic Hotel ballrooms, the French Club ballroom, the Sky Terrace ballroom of the Park Hotel, the Cathay (Peace) Hotel ballroom, the Paramount Ballroom, and the Metropole Gardens Ballroom. Among these seven, five still exist in the city today. The Majestic Hotel was torn down in the early 1930s and the Metropole Gardens seems to have been destroyed in the 1990s if not before. Both occupied the space where the Westgate Mall (Meilongzhen guangchang) stands today, on the corner of Jiangning and Nanjing Roads.
If you wish to visit the remaining five ballrooms, they are generally open to the public, though often they are being used for private parties. Here are some photos I’ve taken of them over the years:
The Paramount Ballroom on Yuyuan Road
This is Shanghai’s most famous ballroom. Since the 1990s it has undergone numerous renovations and has lost its original dance floors. It is the only ballroom still being used primarily for dancing today.
Paramount Ballroom in 2017
Paramount ballroom marquee by night
The Astor House Ballroom (north of Bund near Garden Bridge)
I have also posted several articles on this website on the Astor House. Also see Alvaro Leonardo’s article in our special issue for details of Lafuente’s design scheme.
Nighttime exterior of Astor House taken in 2017
Ground floor ballroom with Arabesque ceiling
One of the most striking features of the ballroom is its original dance floor from the 1920s.
Center of original dance floor built in 1923, which still could be seen as of 2018
The French Club Ballroom (now part of Okura Garden Hotel on Maoming South Road)
This ballroom was built in the 1920s and designed by Veysseyre and Leonard; it was the center piece of the French Club or Circle Sportif Francais, which in 1990 became part of the new Okura Garden Hotel.
The front entrance to the Garden Hotel from Maoming South Road, which used to be the French Club in the 1920s-1940s
The grand hall leading to the second floor ballroom of the former French Club has kept its original design, including the caryatids (nude female bas relief figures) on the pillars holding up the ceiling.
The ballroom is being gussied up for a private wedding party. Unfortunately the original sprung dance floor is hidden by a thick rug.
The most stunning feature of the French Club ballroom is the stain glass light fixture on the ceiling, whose oval shape mirrors the dance floor below
This is one of many bas relief figures that grace the ballroom, which are still there today after nearly a century of revolutionary history in Shanghai
The Cathay Hotel (Fairmont Peace Hotel) Ballroom
Built as part of the Cathay Hotel and Sassoon House in 1929, designed by George Leopold “Tug” Wilson, this ballroom located on the 8th floor of the Peace Hotel on the Bund still retains many of its original features today.
The Peace Hotel with its famous tower as seen from the Bund at night
The Peace Hotel ballroom, taken in 2019, whose floor is now hidden by a thick rug
A Lalique female figurine ensconced in the pillar of the ballroom, atop a striking Deco feature
The Sky Terrace Ballroom of the Park Hotel
Located on Nanjing West Road across from People’s Park, the Park Hotel is a masterpiece of Hudec’s and his flagship building in Shanghai. The 14th floor ballroom still retains its Deco features.
The Park Hotel in 2007 (source: Wikimedia)
The skylight feature on the ceiling of the Park Hotel ballroom.
Some jazzy Deco bas relief figures lining the space below the ceiling of the ballroom
The ballroom being used for a private party in 2019—note the original wooden dance floor