Shanghai Municipal Gaol to Become “Business Hub”

The old Shanghai Municipal Gaol, latterly Tilanqiao Jail, is to be turned into a “business hub” (whatever that is!). Built by the British in 1903 and having housed many a con and often with Sikh guards its going to be redeveloped into offices. One article (here) reports that developers have been told to think along the lines of London’s Tower of London (which is not a “business hub” thank God). It’s all happening – I was in Shanghai week before last standing on Dalian Road at about 11pm when a heavily guarded convoy of about 25 coaches came past ferrying the relocated convicts to Lord knows where. So the gaol is now empty. Tilanqiao was a site of execution going back to its origins – hanging being the preferred method. In the 1930s it was full of dopers, foreign and Chinese, dealing and smoking opium and red pills (cheap heroin). Reports from more recent inmates talk of equally horrific overcrowding – one assumes the Chinese Association for Penal Reform (if such a thing exists?) is not overly influential.

Here’s a picture of what the entrance to the gaol used to look like – they later scrubbed off the English obviously…