Coming Down Alert – Seward Road Frontages

Back to Hongkou (Hongkew) which really is getting creamed at the moment by the bulldozers – just this week the bulldozers went in on some late 1940s factories along Liaoyong Road (Liaoyang Road) and also on some once nice properties Kunming Road (Kwenming Road – see here for similar examples). Here is another large area of several blocks being cleared along Dongdaming Road (Seward Road) between Lushun Road (Arthur Road) and Shangqiu Road.

The frontages appear to have been left till last and while I hope they are preserved (which has happened in some spots and appears to be happening on some cleared properties near the ghastly Xintiandi at the moment) but I doubt that it will happen. They are quite nice and have some nice detailing on them – see second picture below – but are unlikely to last beyond the end of March.

I think it is fair to say now that Hongkou has become one of those areas where, if you didn’t know it previously, you can now never really get much feel for the extent of what was there. The clearances have been so vast (for instance this small terrace frontage faces the three block square of cleared land for an APP mall/upmarket residences project underway) – particularly in the swathes east of Tilanqiao and between Tilanqiao and the river.