CHINA/UNITED KINGDOM: English pub and chip-shop owner wants explanation as to why her traditional buildings feature in new housing developement in China

The sky is cloudy, there are timber-framed red and white brick buildings nestled on the banks of a river and a red phone box in the town centre -- but this is no English town -- in fact it's in China. And this brand new residential compound modelled on a typical English town, just an hour's drive from Shanghai, is at the heart of a cross-continental copyright controversy. Thames Town is located beside the river banks of Songjiang (pron: song-djeeang), a district which is still being transformed from laid-back Chinese suburbia to hip new city. It's an uncanny replica of a myriad of English towns - the Georgian and Victorian-style terraces, a neo-Gothic church and even a bronze statue of Winston Churchill. The Shanghai developers are unabashed about copying English architecture. "I feel that there are many unique features to English architecture," said James Ho, director of Shanghai Henghe Real Estate Co. Ltd, the main developer of Thames Town. "There must be some reason why these buildings have existed for hundreds of years, so we will imitate or copy, we will not make any changes," he added. At the heart of the Thames Town compound lie two buildings The Rock Point Inn and Cob Fish Gate, both of which have their origins in Lyme Regis, a scenic coastal town in southern England. Thousands of miles away in idyllic Lyme Regis, owner of the real pub and chip shop, the Rock Point Inn and Cobb Fish Gate (note the extra B in the English version), Gail Caddy, got the shock of her life when she saw in a British newspaper that her properties had been copied. "I was truly amazed I really was," Caddy told Reuters Television. She has since written to the architects of the Shanghai development demanding an explanation to this seemingly blatant copyright infringement. "Everything is exactly the same, there is no difference at all and I would just like an explanation as to how it has all happened," she said. The architects of Thames Towns, Atkins Shanghai, said it was a matter of convenience that the development took on an English feel, and that no UK town should feel as if it's been out-and-out copied. Atkins is a British-based company and it says it had its local architects take principal examples from various locations across England for the Shanghai development. "I think maybe it is a little bit of a misunderstanding," said Paul Rice, the architect for Thames Town. He added, "We are taking the whole buildings to make a street here and it is not in any way supposed to be a replica. We are actually trying to make a real working town here. So this will be a shop unit and above here will be a residential apartment. And this will be the residential heart of Thames Town, so it's inspired by the buildings of England," Thames Town is hardly even open for business, with some streets still unpaved and street signs still being constructed. The Rock Point Inn and Cob Fish Gate lie empty in the city centre of this huge residential compound. The facade of the two buildings are temporary and can change once they attract new owners. Thames Town is expected to house more than 10,000 residents when it is officially completed in October. The price does not come cheap, of course. These English-styled houses are well out of reach of ordinary Chinese, with prices in excess of 3 million yuan (380,000 U.S. dollars) for a three bedroom home. On the commercial front, one of the first businesses to set up shop was Xin Xin Brides, a bridal photography shop which seems to be doing booming business by arranging photoshoots for newly-weds amid the English backdrop of the Thames Town facade. Its director, Wang Ju (pron: wang-gee), says the unique English feel of Thames Town would be a key attraction to residents and businesses alike. And in England, English pride aside, Gail Caddy says her and her staff definitely hope to visit Thames Town sometime in the future, because, afterall "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

ITN Source | October 6, 2006

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