Description
SHANGHAI, CHINA – INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT / COMPLETE CADASTRAL MASTERPLAN / ROARING ’20s SHANGHAI:
Charles HARPUR (b. 1880/1, fl. 1897 – 1936).
Shanghai: Printed by the Shanghai Times, 1927.
The Treaty of Nanking (1842), which sealed Britain’s victory of over China during the First Opium War, opened Shanghai to foreign trade and settlement. In 1846, the British founded a small concession in the city, along the Huangpu River, at the future Bund, just south of Soochow Creek, with this territory being expanded in 1848. In 1849, the U.S. gained a concession to the north of Soochow Creek, while the same year, the French Concession was established to the south of the British zone.
In 1854, the British, American and French concessions united to form the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC), to govern their zones in-common. However, in 1862, the French left the SMC, henceforth running their own zone independently.
In 1863, Britain and the United States merged their concessions to form the Shanghai International Settlement, which subsequently came to embrace the interests of several other powers (ex. Russia, Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands). The Anglo-American influence always prevailed, such that the concession was often referred to as the “English Settlement”.
The International Settlement was referred to as the “Shanghai Municipality” and while the foreign powers did not legally have sovereignty over its territory (which technically remained under Chinese domain), they essentially governed it as a colony with Beijing having little or no authority within its bounds. Moreover, the citizens of foreign powers had “extraterritorial rights” making them immune from the Chinese judicial system.
While the Shanghai International Settlement was a major boon to the general Chinese economy, Beijing (understandably) always resented the foreign control over what was their country’s greatest commercial hub and port. As such, the relationship between the International Settlement and the Chinese government was always tense, albeit functional. This pressure was aggravated by the fact that the International Settlement and the French Concession often demanded, and succeeded in gaining, extensions to their territory, at the expense of Chinese sovereignty.
Most notably, in 1899, taking advantage of the weakness of the Chinese government, the International Settlement gained massive concessions, such that its territory tripled in size. Prior to that time, the Settlement occupied 1,917 acres; however, the new cessions saw it add an additional 3,804 acres. Specifically, the Eastern District was augmented by 1,896 acres, running down the north bank of the Huangpu, with the new area technically known as ‘Zone D’. The Settlement was also dramatically extended inland from the old English concession, continuing along the south bank of the Soochow Creek, creating the Western District, technically known as ‘Zone D1’, with an area of 1,906 acres. The Settlement’s’ total area thus came to occupy 22.59 km2 (8.72 sq. mi).
Roaring Twenties Shanghai
Perhaps no other place on earth benefitted more, or was as greatly transformed, as Shanghai during the Roaring Twenties. Its economy grew at warp-speed, as unprecedented wealth flowed into the city from across China and the Far East, while the population of the International Settlement grew from 501,561 in 1910, to 1,137,298 in 1925 (with the foreign population being 30,000 in 1925, rising to 60,000 by 1931). The International Settlement and the French Concession were beautified and graced with innumerable extremely grand world-class edifices (ex. hotels, office buildings, residential towers, etc.). Shanghai became renowned for its unique and highly sophisticated metropolitan culture and outrageous nightlife, leading many to claim that it made London, Paris and New York seem dull and provincial in comparison.
Directly relevant to the present maps, Charles Harpur, the International Settlement’s revolutionary Commissioner of Public Works (in office 1922-36), oversaw the mass construction of a vast network of ultra-modern public infrastructure, including multiple concrete bridges, wharves on the Huangpu, the Art Deco abattoir and meat market, many neighbourhood markets, the Central Police Stations and many other police stations; the renovation of the Ward Street Goal, the first modern sewage treatment plant, and incinerators, as well as many schools and fire stations. Importantly, he also oversaw the widening and beautification of roads, greatly alleviating the Settlement’s notorious traffic congestion and improving the quality of life in many residential sectors towards ‘garden city’ standards. He also supervised the hyper-urbanization of the Western District and the extension of Settlement-governed roads into the hinterland beyond.
However, under the surface, not all was well in Shanghai. While the International Settlement itself was well governed, the Chinese Nationalist regime was weak, corrupt and despotic. Additionally, the Japan’s influence and presence in the International Settlement was growing, with the that country’s militaristic ambitions heading on a collision course with the British-dominated government of the Shanghai Municipality.
The unstable political situation exploded into the Shanghai Incident (January 28 – March 3, 1932), when Chinese and Japanese troops fought openly on the streets of the International Settlement. While this situation was eventually diffused, and International Settlement demilitarized, much damage was done to the city, while the period of Shanghai’s ‘high life’ was over. This was a prelude to the Japanese invasion and conquest of Shanghai (minus the International Settlement and the French Concession) during the Battle of Shanghai (August 13, 1937 – November 26, 1937). In December 1941, the International Settlement effectively came to an abrupt end when Japan stormed the Shanghai Municipality. Shanghai would subsequently languish in poverty and obscurity until the revival of China’s fortunes in the 1990s.
A Short Early History of the Cadastral Mapping of Shanghai’s Foreign Concessions
Cadastral maps are the cornerstone of urban planning and property rights in any modern city. They serve as the blueprints for the real-estate industry, zoning laws, property taxation and infrastructure development (the city often needs to purchase private land to expand or build new roads, etc.). While innumerable manuscript cadastral maps of specific properties, blocks, or small areas were made from the beginning of the Foreign Concessions of Shanghai, the great majority of these were of an ephemeral nature and do not survive.
Assembling grand cadastral maps of entire cities, or large urban districts, being ‘masterplans’ (as here), required much more effort to create, as it involved skilfully integrating numerous individual cadastral maps, which were often drafted to varying standards and scales. Consequently, despite the great importance of Shanghai’s Foreign Concessions, few general cadastral maps of entire concessions or districts were made, and even fewer were printed (most seemed to have remained in manuscript form). Moreover, the survival rate of such maps is extremely low, as even printed masterplans were issued in only a handful of examples for use by municipal officials and only major private stakeholders.
The Shanghai Municipality principally created cadastral masterplans to assess land taxation, the cornerstone of the International Settlement’s public revenue stream. The cadastral plans were to be paired with regularly updated ‘Land Assessment Schedules’, a lengthy series of charts that listed the cadastres along with their proprietors, sizes, locations and land tax assessments. These schedules were occasionally printed, even if the cadastral maps that they accorded to remained in manuscript.
For reference, please see an early example of the one of the printed schedules governing the properties in what was the Northern District of the International Settlement, Shanghai Land Assessment Schedule… Hongkew (Shanghai: Carvalho & Co., 1876):
The earliest general cadastral map of the “English” or International Settlement of which we are aware is the locally lithographed Ground Plan of the Foreign Settlement at Shanghai – North of the Yang Kang Pang Canal. From a survey by Mr. F.B.Youel R.N. May, 1855. [Shanghai, 1855] (link courtesy of Virtual Shanghai):
https://www.virtualshanghai.net/Maps/Collection?ID=30
The next progression is the Plan of the English Settlement at Shanghae (1866) (link courtesy of Virtual Shanghai):
https://www.virtualshanghai.net/Maps/Collection?ID=343
Also notable is the great manuscript cadastral plan of the French Concession, the Conseil d’administration de la concession française de Shanghai’s “Plan de la propriété foncière au 30 juin 1877” (Manuscript, 1877) (link courtesy of Virtual Shanghai):
https://www.virtualshanghai.net/Maps/Collection?ID=1647
A stylistic antecedent of the present map set is the Shanghai Municipal Council’s printed Cadastral Plan of the English Settlement (London: Waterlow and Sons, 1890) (link courtesy of Virtual Shanghai):
https://www.virtualshanghai.net/Maps/Collection?ID=62
Directly relevant to the present map is the Cadastral Plan of the Western District (1916), the precursor to the present map of the Western District (see Map #5 below); please see an image courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection (Stanford University):
Also directly germane is the 1925 edition of the cadastral map of the same area, Plan of the Western District, but here made specifically for the purpose of “shewing new roads and widening” (link courtesy of Virtual Shanghai):
https://www.virtualshanghai.net/maps/collection?ID=43
The Present Masterplans in Focus
Present here is a set of 5 maps that represent, as best as we are aware, the earliest and perhaps only known surviving complete printed cadastral mapping of the International Settlement of Shanghai in its fully expanded (post-1899) form. The maps were issued for the government of the Shanghai Municipality, and were drafted under the supervision of the Charles Harpur, the Welshman who, as the city’s Commissioner of Public Works, was instrumental in revolutionizing the infrastructure and appearance of Roaring Twenties Shanghai. The maps were photolithographed locally by the press of The Shanghai Times newspaper, in 1927, at the height of Shanghai’s greatest boom period, when the city’s social, economic and aesthetic atmosphere was the envy of the world.
There is one map each representing the Central (The Bund), Northern (Hongkew / Hongkou) and Western Districts, while the geographically large and elongated Eastern District is depicted by two maps.
Each map, and the pair of plans of the Eastern District, features a separate title page adhered to it (save for the map for the Northern District, which lacks this leaf), that designate the map as being Shanghai Municipality. Land Assessment Schedules made in Pursuance of Resolution VI passed at the Annual Meeting of Ratepayers, of April 13, 1927 (while noting the names of the respective district maps to which they are attached). As such, the maps’ express purpose was to serve as masterplans for assessing land taxation and were clearly meant to be matched to Land Assessment Schedule ledgers (like the one depicted earlier), that list all the properties, their owners, sizes and their assessed land taxes. For the year 1927 these ledgers seem to have remained in manuscript form (as they did for most years), as we cannot trace any record of such a work.
Importantly, the maps had many other alternative public and private uses, such as for planning infrastructure development, real estate transactions, administering social services and policing/defence applications.
Each map depicts its respective district (or part thereof) within its proper bounds, with all thoroughfares labelled (some of which had been recently widened under Harpur’s supervision), while the land everywhere save for parklands is shown divided into hundreds of numbered and meticulously defined cadastral lots of highly variable size and shape. Naturally, the trend was that the plats in the densely populated residential areas (ex. the Central, Northern and southeastern part the Western Districts) are smaller than those in the more industrial areas (ex. the Eastern and much of the Western Districts).
To preserve the clarity of the maps, so that they best served as the blueprints for defining property holdings, beyond the street names and the numbering of all cadastral lots, the map is intentionally sparing of detail, although waterways, police stations, public markets, parks and major public buildings/monuments are still labelled.
The present plans would have been issued in only very small print runs for the use of municipal officials, real estate barons and building contractors, etc., and would generally not have been publicly circulated.
The maps are as follows:
*All maps are in Very Good condition, being overall clean and crisp, with only light toning along original folds; a few maps have short, closed hairline tears from the margins; while the title pages are a bit tattered along outer margins. The map of the Western District (Map #5) features contemporary manuscript annotations in pencil, seemingly indicative of active use in real estate transactions.
[1].
[CENTRAL DISTRICT – THE BUND].
Charles HARPUR (b. 1880/1, fl. 1897 – 1936).
Cadastral Plan of the Central District / Foreign Settlement of Shanghai 1927.
Shanghai: Printed by the Shanghai Times, 1927.
Photolithograph on slightly glossy paper, 47.5 x 58 cm (18.5 x 23 inches), folding, bound with separate title page reading: ‘Central / Shanghai Municipality. Land Assessment Schedules made in Pursuance of Resolution VI passed at the Annual Meeting of Ratepayers, of April 13, 1927. / Central District, 1927’.
This cadastral masterplan depicts the core of the International Settlement, being the territory of the old English Concession. It is bounded by Soochow Creek (to the north), Thibet Road (to the east), Avenue Edward VII (to the south, separating it from French Concession), and the Huangpu River (to the west). The Huangpu waterfront is home to The Bund, a 1.6 km-long grand avenue fronted by wharves and towered over by some of the grandest office buildings and hotels in the world, many built relatively recently in the Beaux Arts and neoclassical styles. The Bund was home to the headquarters of most of China’s largest commercial enterprise, including all the ‘Big Four’ banks. Two blocks inland from The Bund are the ‘Municipal Administration Buildings’, effectively the capitol of the International Settlement, while roughly dissecting the district, running east-west, is Nanking Road (today 南京路; Nánjīng Lù) , then and once again today one of the world’s busiest shopping streets. Today, the Central District is classified as part of Shanghai’s Huangpu District.
[2].
[NORTHERN DISTRICT].
Charles HARPUR (b. 1880/1, fl. 1897 – 1936).
Cadastral Plan of the Northern District / Foreign Settlement of Shanghai 1927.
Shanghai: Printed by the Shanghai Times, 1927.
Photolithograph on slightly glossy paper, 75 x 62 cm (29.5 x 24.5 inches), seemingly lacking title page.
This map showcases the Northern District, then commonly known as ‘Hongkew’ (today Hongkou), located to the north of Soochow Creek, and connected to The Bund by the Garden Bridge. Home to some grand residences and the famous Astor Place Hotel, Hongkew was the site of Shanghai’s ‘Japan Town’, and in those times the epicentre of Japan’s increasingly subversive activities within China. In fact, by the time that the present map was published, Japan was actively undermining British dominance in the International Settlement.
[3 & 4].
[EASTERN DISTRICT].
[3].
Charles HARPUR (b. 1880/1, fl. 1897 – 1936).
Cadastral Plan of Section A / Eastern District / Foreign Settlement of Shanghai 1927.
Shanghai: Printed by the Shanghai Times, 1927.
Photolithograph on slightly glossy paper, 44 x 80 cm (17.5 x 31.5 inches).
Both this map and #4 following folding and bound together with separate title page reading ‘Eastern / Shanghai Municipality. Land Assessment Schedules made in Pursuance of Resolution VI passed at the Annual Meeting of Ratepayers, of April 13, 1927. / Eastern District, 1927’.
The cadastral masterplan for the Eastern District is divided into two maps, due to the jurisdiction’s large and elongated size, with the division point being Lay Road, although the two maps are bound together with a single title page. The Eastern District was divided from the Northern District to its west, by the Hongkew Creek, and prior to 1899, when it was acquired by International Settlement, it was a totally undeveloped area of swampy savannah. Since that time, the area was earmarked as Shanghai’s Municipality’s main industrial zone, with massive cadastral lots running along the Huangpu riverfront to accommodate large warehouses and factories, served by a light railway. The Eastern District was home to most of the city’s the service plants (water purification, electricity, etc.), while it is recorded that, in 1927, the zone hosted 57 foreign factories, with a focus upon textiles, shipbuilding and papermaking. By that time, that western half of the district (‘Section A’) was fully developed, while the eastern side (‘Section B’) was in an incipient state, with many projected roads unbuilt or unpaved, while many lots were not necessarily being used, at least to their fullest extent.
[4].
[Charles HARPUR (b. 1880/1, fl. 1897 – 1936)].
Cadastral Plan of Section B / Eastern District / Foreign Settlement of Shanghai 1927.
Shanghai: Printed by the Shanghai Times, 1927.
Photolithograph on slightly glossy paper, 45 x 69.5 cm (17.5 x 27.5 inches).
[5].
[WESTERN DISTRICT].
Charles HARPUR (b. 1880/1, fl. 1897 – 1936).
Cadastral Plan of the Western District / Foreign Settlement of Shanghai 1927.
Shanghai: Printed by the Shanghai Times, 1927.
Photolithograph on slightly glossy paper, 90 x 74 cm (35.5 x 29 inches), folding, bound with separate title page reading: ‘Western / Shanghai Municipality. Land Assessment Schedules made in Pursuance of Resolution VI passed at the Annual Meeting of Ratepayers, of April 13, 1927. / Western District, 1927’.
This cadastral masterplan showcases the Western District (technically ‘Zone D1’), the massive 1,903 acre concession added to the International Settlement in 1899, that was bounded roughly by Thibet Street, to the east (beyond which is the ‘Central District’); the Great Western Road and Avenue Edward VII, to the south (with the ‘French Settlement’ beyond), and by Soochow Creek, to the north, and with complex limits to the west, running beyond Kiaochow Road.
Always earmarked for high-density urban development, the Western District was seen as
vital to the Settlement’s future, as its population was growing rapidly, and so it urgently needed to expand its residential, recreational and industrial capacities.
The Western District was built-up very quickly, with its eastern and southern areas largely dedicated to recreational and middle to upper-class residential use. It was home to the Settlement’s greatest park, the Public Recreation Ground (which grew out the labelled ‘Race Course’), fine hotels, consulates, private clubs, elite schools, churches, and posh shops and mansions. The northern (near the Soochow Creek) and western parts of the Western District were generally reserved for industrial use and large commercial estates (ex. factories, warehouse, utilities).
The Masterplans: Seemingly Unrecorded
All cadastral masterplans of the Foreign Concessions of Shanghai from any period are today extreme rarities, with many examples referenced in literature or records now thought lost. Fragile, large format and issued in only very small print runs exclusively for official and professional consumption, the maps tended to be heavily used, leading to a very low survival rate.
As such, it is not so surprising that all the present maps are seemingly unrecorded.
Other than the few aforementioned general cadastral maps of the International Settlement (ex. 1890 English Settlement [Central District]; 1916 Western District; 1925 Western District), the only other surviving example of such works of which we are aware is a map of the combined Northern and part of the Eastern Districts, the Cadastral Plan of Section B Eastern District, Foreign Settlement of Shanghai (1933), held by the U.K. National Archives. It is quite possible that some additional cadastral maps of the Shanghai International Settlement exist in Chinese archives; however, our attempts to locate such works have not been fruitful.
Charles Harpur: The Engineer who Transformed Roaring ’20s Shanghai
Charles Harpur (b. 1880/1, fl. 1897-1936) was a Welsh civil engineer who had a transformative effect upon Shanghai’s cityscape. He was the son of the City Engineer of Cardiff and, in 1897, is recorded as having been enrolled as an “articled pupil” (i.e., unpaid apprentice) in the Cardiff Public Works Department, being promoted to the position of “junior survey assistant” in said organization the following year.
In 1901, Harpur moved to Shanghai, where he is noted as being immediately inducted into the Engineering Society of China. In 1902, he joined the Public Works Department of the Shanghai Municipality, whereupon his work was highly lauded by his superiors, Charles Mayne, the Commissioner of Public Works, and his deputy and successor, Charles Henry Godfrey. Harpur was soon promoted to the post of Assistant Municipal Engineer and, in 1910, became the Deputy Commissioner of Public Works, serving as Godfrey’s righthand man.
Upon Godfrey’s retirement, in 1922, Harpur was given the top job, as the Commissioner of Public Works, a role he held for 14 years. He thus oversaw the massive Roaring ’20s building boom that transformed Shanghai into the “The Paris of the East”. A proponent of radically modern and high-quality infrastructure and urban planning, he transformed the International Settlement into one of the grandest cityscapes in the world.
Harpur served as the President of Engineering Society of China (1921-2) and was a driving force behind the Shanghai Volunteer Force (the local militia) and, in 1929, was awarded an O.B.E. by King George V for services to the Shanghai Defence Force.
When Harpur retired as Commissioner, in 1936, at the age of 55, Shanghai had grown and modernized so dramatically under his watch, that it was, in many respects, unrecognizable from its state when he commenced his tenure. The Shanghai ratepayers held a massive retirement banquet in his honour, during which he was praised “to loud applause”.
References: N/A – All Maps Seemingly Unrecorded. Cf. [re: 1916 Western District cadastral plan.] David Rumsey Map Collection (Stanford University): 16205.000; [re: 1925 ed. Western District cadastral plan:] Library of Congress example, OCLC: 818270389; [re: 1933 Northern and part of Eastern Districts cadastral plan:] National Archives: WOMAT/ADD/27/12; [re: background:] C.F. FRASER, ‘The Status of the International Settlement at Shanghai’, Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, vol. 21, no. 1, (1939), pp. 38-53; Cole ROSKAM, Improvised City: Architecture and Governance in Shanghai, 1843-1937 (2019); [re: Charles Harpur:] Isabella JACKSON, Shaping Modern Shanghai: Colonialism in China’s Global City (2018), p. 103
![ZAGREB: Nacrt Zagreba. Sestavio: Za načelnikovanja arhitekta Vjekoslava Heinzela Gradski gradjevni odsjek [Plan of Zagreb: Made at the time of mayor architect Vjekoslav Heinzel by the Urban Planning Office].](https://pahor.at/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/65688a-265x331.jpg)
![SPAIN – BADAJOZ / NAPOLEONIC WARS MANUSCRIPT MAP: [Untitled Manuscript Plan of the Siege of Badajoz (1812)].](https://pahor.at/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/65676-265x331.jpg)
