The Carlton Returns

I notice a property development – the normal sort of dreary jerry built nouveau riche tower block – going up behind Nanjing Road (Bubbling Well Road) on Huanghe Road (the old Park Road). It’s going to be called the ‘Carlton Apartments’. Now this area used to have a lot of things called Carlton. The original Carlton Apartments were on Park Road and built in 1937. Meanwhile the Carlton Theatre was at No.2 featuring regular performances by the Fourth US Marines regimental band, which unsurprisingly attracted many single Shanghailander women, were held at the Carlton Theatre. Not that far away on Ningbo Road (Ningpo Road) was the Carlton Café at 33 run by Louis Ladlow with reputedly excellent dinner always taken in black tie. The Carlton had opened for business in the 1920s and by the 1930s was known simply as “the old Carlton”.

And so now we will get a new Carlton Apartment building