Tales of the Urban Explorer: Shanghai Palace

On checking the history of ‘Shanghai Palace’, I was dismayed to find this sobering report.

33_IMG_6333_33.jpg

Since closing in 2017 it has been burgled 23 times with thieves being spotted driving away with the eateries’ famous ornamental 'Chinese Dragons'.

30_IMG_6330_30.jpg

What makes it worse is that above article is from 2017 and is not recent. How many times has it subsequently been ransacked since then?

image.png
Source

...'Shanghai Palace in better days, one can hope the kitchen did not smell so er... flavoursome then'...

Having been tipped off that 'Shanghai Palace' was accessible we parked up and assessed the security.

What security? Walking around the herras fencing was not difficult and I won't even go into details about the building.

31_IMG_6331_31.jpg

Let me say it looked like some dynamite had been used, and the viewpoint we witnessed was a little surreal. Owner Joe Farley must have given up on his once prized restaurant.

According to this other report he has lost a fortune and I suspect a demolition may be coming if someone wants to pay for it all.

The online reviews all appear to be positive with some people griping about the expensive prices. It was time to go in and see what we could find.

1_IMG_6299_1.jpg

2_IMG_6300_2.jpg

To call it ransacked would be an understatement. I wonder how large these Chinese Dragons were and that those thieves really needed high explosives to get them out?

3_IMG_6301_3.jpg

£40 a head for the Seafood Banquet? It does seem a little on the steep side and I do eat at Chinese places though I tend to avoid these huge deals due to my sparrow-like appetite.

4_IMG_6302_4.jpg

5_IMG_6303_5.jpg

Not content with the ransacking the thieves and others since have decided to smash the place up.

6_IMG_6304_6.jpg

7_IMG_6306_7.jpg

Christmas parties are profitable for restaurants in the UK. That was before the COVID time and everywhere tended to be full; one bill for £500 and another for £800.

8_IMG_6307_8.jpg

9_IMG_6308_9.jpg

While some of the table linen had survived, another lot had succumbed to a fire.

10_IMG_6309_10.jpg

11_IMG_6310_11.jpg

Are these table orders, or receipts? Maybe @livinguktaiwan can help me out and with the rest of the writings in this post.

12_IMG_6311_12.jpg

Pegs for order chits?

13_IMG_6312_13.jpg

Some menus are not directed to the English community.

14_IMG_6313_14.jpg

Entering the kitchen was a very poor idea. Was it the bamboo shoots that were giving off that appalling stench?

15_IMG_6314_15.jpg

Or maybe they had not washed anything before vacating. In any case, it was quite overwhelming and I was surprised to see no rats knocking about.

We quickly vacated that area or else would have risked oral incapacitation.

16_IMG_6315_16.jpg

17_IMG_6316_17.jpg

£9.95, now that's more like it, though I am surprised they open on Mondays. Many of them don't bother anymore.

18_IMG_6317_18.jpg

If these are reservations it tells a story. It was hardly busy for a Saturday night.

19_IMG_6318_19.jpg

The chairs must not be worth stealing, same for the tables.

20_IMG_6319_20.jpg

21_IMG_6320_21.jpg

What a delightful toilet. There’s even bog roll though it might prove a little damp and stick to your arse if used.

22_IMG_6321_22_censored.jpg

A linen hire company? Whatever this bill is for, it's extremely costly. Does it cost that much to rent it, or clean it?

23_IMG_6322_23.jpg

24_IMG_6323_24.jpg

There was no beer left in the vending machine, I did check. Drinking abandoned beer is not my thing anyway.

25_IMG_6324_25.jpg

26_IMG_6325_26.jpg

Apparently, glasses are also not worth stealing, even boxed, new, albeit slightly mouldy.

27_IMG_6326_27.jpg

Some more indecipherable scribbling.

28_IMG_6328_28.jpg

Is this part of the Chinese Dragons? It looks detached from something.

29_IMG_6329_29.jpg

We visited Shanghai Palace in October 2020 and have heard little of it since. Has it been boarded up? I hope so.

32_IMG_6332_32.jpg

It could be restored but in our current times of lockdown / no-lockdown (rinse and repeat), things are not good for the hospitality industry. It might be better if it was demolished.

RedLine.png

Do you like posting your Urbex content and photography for FREE on Facebook and YouTube? I like to get some form of reward for my work and every time I create I do just that. Take a look at The Urbex Community on HIVE.

If you want to keep creating for FREE then ignore what you are reading. If you want to be like me and gain something other than BUGGER ALL for your work then click here and learn about posting on the HIVE blockchain.

RedLine.png

  • Earn FREE EOS from Coinbase by taking partaking in a simple quiz here
  • Earn currency while you play brewing virtual beer with CryptoBrewMaster
  • Earn currency while you play and become a global Rock Star with Rising Star


CurieCurator.jpg

RedLine.png

Drooling Maniac.JPG

If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, rehive, engage me or all of these things.

Sort:  

Looks like it is a pretty good sized building. Still some good stuff the current owners can remove and sell somewhere, lots of chairs and table like you said and all those boxes of glasses, it might not be a lot of money but some would be better than none.

The report did say the owner was planning to sell the stock.. then all the looting hit.

Nice one.. Never know what you can find ..wish there were more close up pictures in the kitchen.. After all it's the heart of any restaurant... Losing your breakfast or lunch for a once in a lifetime opportunity .. well maybe next restaurant explore..

external-content.duckduckgo.jpg

Hehe.. they look a little planted. The ones here scram when they see humans!

It's the big ones that aren't afraid of humans that makes me scramble..

Ohhh! Gross, Mike! @manorvillemike I am always happy when I don't have to see a rat!

What are you kidding me, Rats are very smart, make good pets and are a delicacy in parts of the world.. 🐭

Not in my world!!! Yikes, Mike! :))

As a former restaurateur, I found this post extremely painful! The tables and chairs would be valuable to a restaurant. I am surprised nothing was auctioned.

I do feel for them, it must be a terrible feeling to lose all of this.

Sad to see this condition of something that was a a famous place once.
You captured the story very well and narrated is well too.
Thanks a lot for sharing the pictures here.


Posted via proofofbrain.io

Hey mate, is it legit to post about an abandoned service station, a dilapidated wreck? Not sure what's relevant and legit in the community. Just need some guidance.

Yeah! Anything abandoned.. half of mine are wrecks!

Great, I'll get on it.

@tipu curate :)

What a shame the place isn’t in better shape, still, super interesting!

There was not a lot to look at, no upstairs or basement. A strange building all on a single level.

It's nice that the table that was reserved was still being kept for whoever it was...

I am surprised those glasses didn't get tipped out and smashed everywhere and it did seem a little on the steep side. I have always avoided those types of big places as they seem very industrial on scale and the food is never good

I have found many a place with hordes of boxed glasses. Maybe they don't sell so well on eBay? Just a thought... you know 😶

It's a niche!! Get in there and start collecting and selling!!

This looks like it was a pretty decent place when it was up and running. Reminds me of a lot of the Chinese places we have around where I live. The decor must be something all of these places buy in bulk from some store. I wonder how the food was. Did I miss it or did it have one of those ratings that most of the places over there have?

Food Hygiene Ratings.., I didn't notice one here. I do know the kitchen would no longer pass, there might have been more things of interest back there but I forgot my gas-mask.

Haha, I don't blame you. It would be interesting to see what the score was before it closed up. Even in it's prime!

Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍

Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!

Want to have your post on the map too?

  • Go to Pinmapple
  • Click the get code button
  • Click on the map where your post should be (zoom in if needed)
  • Copy and paste the generated code in your post (Hive only)
  • Congrats, your post is now on the map!

No wonder it went bankrupt charging those sort of prices in Wigan. Isn’t that the home of the pie in a barm cake?
Class.
Nice find

Oh, I cannot believe they left so much behind! It looks like it was a decent place, once upon a time. I have to wonder what motivated the people to wreck the kitchen, but, not take any of the glasses or chairs/tables which they could have turned into money.

I surprised there weren't any rats! :))

That looked like it would have been salvagable at one time. People are so freaking desctuctive!