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JG Ballard’s Childhood Home Gutted

Posted: March 10th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

The moral of this story (or at least one of several) – don’t let anyone tell you preservation orders in Shanghai on old buildings mean shit – they don’t. They didn’t at the White Horse Inn last year when it came down, nor the old Shanghai Rowing Club building on Suzhou Creek and they have once again proved worthless at the former home of JG Ballard on the corner of Panyu Road and Xinhua Road (formerly Colombia Road and Amherst Avenue).  It’s worth noting that even if Ballard’s later work as a writer means nothing in Shanghai the house and grounds were a good example of the sort of grand structures erected in the Western Roads Area in the 1920s/1930s.

I have nothing to add to Malcolm Moore’s piece in the Daily Telegraph, accompanied by a short video (here). Another tragedy to add to an ever lengthening list in Shanghai of wanton destruction.

2 Comments on “JG Ballard’s Childhood Home Gutted”

  1. 1 Rick McGrath said at 10:50 pm on March 10th, 2010:

    I can add a lot of information, having visited the house, Lunghua, and most of JGB’s Shanghai in September, 2007:
    http://www.jgballard.ca/shanghai/shanghai.html

  2. 2 Paul French said at 11:03 pm on March 10th, 2010:

    Thanks Rick

    I live just round the corner from JGB’s old house and so have to walk past the vandalism every morning – it used to be a pleasure to recall him on a stroll past, but now it’ll just be annoying.

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