Astor Terrace?…Madame Madani Francis’ Place?…Maybe

While researching my book The Old Shanghai A-Z I was fascinated by a small road apparently called Astor Terrace. It was listed in the Shanghai Municipal Council lists as being a small road just behind the Astor House Hotel. Only a couple of addresses of commercial premises were given as actually being on Astor Terrace itself and, as ever, the dark corners behind hotels concealed some interesting spots – a certain wonderfully named Madame Madani Francis ran a massage parlour (make of that description what you will in old Shanghai!!) at No.4 that I fear may or may not have been totally legitimate.

However, this road never seems to appear on maps. Astor House Hotel today is still there – The Pujiang Hotel now – and fronts onto Huang Pu Road (formerly Whangpoo Road). The Astor Hotel now runs seemingly straight into another building that fronts onto Daming Road (formerly Broadway). There is no Astor Terrace apparently at the back of the Astor Hotel. However walking down Jinshan Road (formerly Astor Road) the other day I noticed that it appears there may once have been a small lane that could have formed a narrow terrace that ran between the buildings – though it appears that it was a dead end and did not come out on Broadway and must have been fairly dark (at least enough to perhaps shade those scurrying home from Madam Francis’s?). However, it’s been sealed up with additional new buildings – so we can assume that Madame Madani Francis’s place lies hidden somewhere inside still!

The now built over small street that may once have been Astor Terrace at the rear of the hotel here on Jinshan Road – nothing particularly solid, just some additional water tanks it seems

Here you can see what may have once been Astor Terrace at the right of the picture with the hotel running down to Huang Pu Road.