SOME 5,700 miles from Britain lies a replica of an old English town completed with cobbled streets, red phone boxes and small coffee shops.
Thames Town, as it’s known, has everything you would expect in a quaint English town, including a church, pub, and even ivy growing up the mock Tudor buildings.
Thams Town is a replica of Brit town of Cotswolds[/caption]
The buildings have no purpose other than to act as props[/caption]
There is even ivy on the mock Tudor buildings[/caption]
Red phone boxes give the village an authentic feel[/caption]
Thames Town comes complete with cobbled streets – but it’s near Shanghai[/caption]
Thames Town in Songjiang district is just 19 miles away from central Shanghai.
It seems to be a replica of Britain’s popular “postcard perfect” town of Cotswolds.
Built at a cost of £530million, the place was first expected to be inhabited by Brit-loving locals and visited by tourists to look as if they have flown to the UK.
The town occupies an area of less than a square mile and is designed for a population of 10,000.
Most of its architecture and design language has been directly copied from buildings found in England.
This includes a church, which seems like it is based on the Christ Church in Clifton Down in Bristol.
There are also English-style pubs, a fish and chip shop and even red telephone booths.
However, after some 25 years since first unveiled, the town has failed to do its magic and attract people – and has been reduced to an abandoned ghost town.
Many people blame soaring house prices, while others say the project was flawed.
Today, Thames Town is a popular destination for newly married couples who like it as the backdrop for their wedding snaps.
Brit Photographer Paul Reiffer, 39, who visited the bizarre town, said despite the village’s authentic look there is a catch.
“The place is really interesting and very well made, except none of it is actually working,” he said.
“The pubs don’t open, and the church does not have a Sunday service.
“We went to a pub in the town to get some lunch and quickly realised there was nobody working there, and the buildings were just props, then we noticed that all of the working shops were for weddings.”
Paul said Thames Town, which was built in the early 2000s, looks identical to Weymouth, Dorset, where he lives in England.
COPY PASTE
“If you were blindfolded and dropped here, you would have no idea you were in Shanghai,” he said.
“The place is exactly like an English town – it’s designed very well – but it puts you in a weird headspace.”
“The weird part is that when you go there people all around are having photoshoots and everyone is dressed up for a wedding.”
Meanwhile, the Chinese city of Suzhou has a replica of Tower Bridge, though it has four turrets rather than the original one’s two and also has a four-lane dual carriageway running across it.
Elsewhere in China you can see replicas of Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, Austrian villages and the Titanic.
Canal in Thames Town in Songjiang district, Shanghai China[/caption]
Thames Town is over 5,700 miles from Britain[/caption]
