The Cercle Sportif Francais


Located in the French Concession, this club was less stuffy than its British counterpart.  It even admitted women, although limited to forty female members at any one  time. There was always a waiting list. It was the club to belong to. Not only was it exceptionally lively but it was also architecturally stunning-and is to this day.

When the author first came to Shanghai in 1981 it had become the Jin Jiang Club, an adjunct of the Jin Jiang Hotel across the street (the former Grosvenor House). It had gently gone to seed, but one could still have drinks on the terrace overlooking the fountains and stroll through the wasteland of the former tennis courts. Its faded glory was still there in its paneled reading room, its sprung ballroom floor, its foyer filled with potted palms and its billiards room with the original green baize-covered tables.

These are gone, but the remaining portions of the building have been meticulously restored by the Japanese Okura Hotel chain, who built a new five-star hotel atop the former swimming pool and billiards room. In the course of renovation workers removed plywood paneling in the lobby, under which they found the original plasterwork friezes of statuesque nudes(visible in this picture on the columns above the stairs). Thanks to the prudery of the communist regime these original masterpieces of Art Deco craftsmanship are still in place.