Holy Trinity Church Refurbishment Appears Successful…But Shanghai’s Other Religious Sites Perhaps not Faring so Well

In among all the destruction ongoing in Shanghai, a small ray of light – the restoration of the Sir Gilbert Scott (below) designed Holy Trinity Church on Jiujiang Road (Kiukiang Road). I snapped the inside during refurbishment (here) some time ago. Now the Los Angeles Times has a long and detailed article on the church’s history and some shots of the apparently magnificent finished interior (only the stained glass to go).

Though religious sites around town continue to be destroyed, most notably recently the Jesuit Recoleta Mission in Frenchtown, this seems to be a victory for the good guys and the venue will apparently become a practicing church again. Hopefully this may encourage those restoring the Union Church on Suzhou Creek. I fear for that one as it lies within the area of land that seems to be totally controlled by the Rockbund Corporation (Rockefeller Development) who’s track record in Shanghai so far is rather alarming (unable to protect the Rowing Club and mucking about with various other buildings behind the Bund too and creating a nasty private guard patrolled atmosphere for anyone not either foreign or obviously wealthy – the city has basically allowed an entire street to be privatised!). The other day I tried to get into the Union Church but the private security goons were not having any of that!

Hopefully Scott would have been pleased with the restoration