A spat between property developers in Shanghai, and a British
pub and chip shop owner could end up bringing two very different
towns closer together.
Gail Caddy, owner of the UK businesses in the ancient seaside
town of Lyme Regis in southwest England, was amazed when she saw
pictures of Thames Town, in Shanghai's Songjiang District, in the
British press.
Replete with Georgian-style town houses and red brick terraces,
Caddy noticed the project includes two buildings almost identical
to her 256-year-old pub and neighbouring fish bar, even down to
having the same names on the front.
Now Caddy, 53, has suggested twinning the buildings in Thames
Town with her original Rock Point Inn and Cobb Gate Fish Bar.
"It looks like the whole facade has been copied with the
exception of a front window missing," Caddy, who initially drew
Shanghai residents' attention to her plight through the
www.shanghaiist.com web site.
"I have two unique properties here there is nowhere else in the
world where you have a pub and a fish 'n' chip shop side-by-side at
a river mouth - and I was amazed to see they had been copied, even
having a similar location, without anyone asking if I minded."
As, unsurprisingly, she does not have the original architectural
plans for the centuries old buildings, Caddy has been told she
cannot claim intellectual property rights (IPR) to their
design.
Neither can she claim copyright over the names, Thames Town
developers say, because she did not register them in China,
"We hired a British agency, Atkins, to design the whole project,
and many of the buildings were copied from those in England. Atkins
even produced a brochure to show how similar the buildings here are
to some in England," said Wang Haijun, spokeswoman for Shanghai
Henghe Real Estate Co Ltd, one of the companies behind the
project.
Architect Paul Rice, who works for Atkins in Shanghai, said
that, apart from the names, which his company had nothing to do
with, there had been no deliberate copying.
"We tried to follow the same rules as architects 200 years ago
to create something really authentic. The result may look very
similar to actual buildings in England, but it's not a copy of
anywhere in particular."
Caddy now wants to seize on the situation as an opportunity for
residents and visitors to Lyme Regis and Thames Town to get to know
more about each other.
"Towns are 'twinned' with other towns in different countries and
I have asked for a plaque to be put on the front of the buildings
in Shanghai saying, 'Twinned with the Rock Point Inn and Cobb Gate
Fish Bar, Lyme Regis, Dorset,'" Caddy said.
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I am very
flattered that this has happened. I would just have appreciated
more contact and explanation from the developers."
And the Dorset landlord is even planning on making the trip to
Shanghai to see "her" buildings when Thames Town officially opens
in October.
"With all that's happened it would be nice if the developers
offered to bring me over for it, but even if they don't I'm willing
to pay myself I just really want to see how my pub and chip shop
look in Shanghai."
(China Daily September 14, 2006)