Astor House: A Pleasant Outlook On Broadway

In our previous post we stood in the middle of the intersection of Astor Road and Broadway, and we only take a few steps back and turn to our left.

This is the "Thomas Hanbury Coffee House", opened in 1904. This photo is from close to the opening in the mid-nineteen-oughts.

More than just a cafe of some sort, this was a state-of-the-art residence club for sailors that were only in town for a few nights while their ship was being unloaded.

As the North-China Herald wrote a few days after its opening on June 14, 1904: "[...] ready to welcome any sailors who might desire entertainment in the way of refreshment or lodging for the night."

The house offered "[...]a bar, where beer, stout and porter besides minerals can be obtained, as well as tea and coffee." Minerals? Hmm... a quick search reveals that this is a term for soft drinks or soda water around this time, though it sounds like something served with a pickaxe.

Further... "On the first floor is a reading and writing room, with a pleasant outlook on Broadway." Above it, on the second floor were two-bed rooms for officers and 8-10 bed rooms for general crew.

Sometime later the Hanbury was renamed the "British Merchant Seamen's Club", although nobody seems to have ever bothered to change the sign over the door, as we see in the photo below.

As we continue towards Seward Road behind the Astor House, here is one more look back at the residence club, albeit 35 years later. This photo is from 1939, and the Hanbury (or whatever) looks dark from soot and dust.

The sign with the original name is still up at the time, although by 1939, during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai's northern districts, I would not be surprised if the club was hosting Japanese officers at this time.

Directly at the corner in front of the entrance to the Astor House bar is a rickshaw with a customer being pulled - it looks almost like the rickshaw ride just started with the operator turning around talking to the passenger, asking for the destination. Maybe a guest that just came out of the hotel?

To the right in this second photo we see some blurry details of the storefronts along this first block of Broadway. These first three stores are the Swan Cafe, Hasall and Broadway Tobacco. We'll see more in the coming posts as we walk past these stores and also hear about the historical background of late 1930s Shanghai.