Hotel de France to Succeed the Hotel des Colonies Shanghai's hotel accommodation is to be still further increased by the dismantling of the old Hotel des Colonies on Rue clu Consular and Rue Montauban and the ercetion on the site of a well equipped modern style building to be known as the Hotel de France.
The plans show the design to be of a very handsome order and the building will be amongst the finest of the many architectural ornaments recently built and in course of erect tion in the two Settlements. The main entrance will be on Rue Montauban, prominent on the facade being six fluted Dorian columns.
Consular will be practically The front on the Rue the same, except for the entrance and the corner, surmounting all, will be a Jarge moulded dome.
Much as people admire fine buildings, the first consideration locally nowadays is accommodation, so it will come as good news that there are to be 200° bedrooms for 350 guests and the builders say that they will have 150 rooms finished by the end of this year and ready for occupation by next summer. The hotel is to be furnished throughout in Louis XVI style and the catering will be in the hands of an experienced French chef, who has been specially engaged. All rooms are to be connected by telephone and calls will- be possible from room to room, which is said to be an innovation for Shanghai.
Other features are a dining room 120 ft. by 60 ft., opening direct on to winter gardens and a vestibule 110 ft. by 80 ft. The management have not overlooked that all-essential thing in any Shanghai public building, a dancing hall, and their's will be on a par, at least, with anything we now have. It has been specially designed according to European plans and will be decorated by a European artist, whilst there will be room on the floor for 150 couples to dance with comfort. The building will be seven stories in height.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.