View of Thames Town (from www.building.co.uk )
from www.thamestown.com
This strange town is just oustide Shanghai in China. It is a replica of an English Town. So strange. the website describes it as 'Authentic English Town'. It looks like a film set, old, yet not. I wonder what the buildings are like, are they all created from brick, sandstone, marble and so on or are they more cheaply constructed?This video shows a good range of views of the town.
I first saw Thames Town on that Paul Merton documentary on China that screened on the ABC recently (if your quick the last episode with Thames Town in it is still on iView). Apparently almost all the houses are sold but very few are actually lived in.
The illusion, such as it is, would appear to crumble a little at the edges.
I find places like this so intriguing. Thames town reminds me of several places. the film sets I visited at Cinecitta in Italy, the reconstructed town centre of Warsaw and even the odd but delightful Italianate town of Portmeirion in Wales built by the eccentric Clough Williams Ellis. All places I should do a post on at some point. Do you know any other slightly surreal towns that look like film sets or at least an architectural duck out of water?
weird! it looks like the Disney version or something.
ReplyDeleteAll clean and perfect.