Goverment officials have vowed to investigate why a developer demolished a two-story historic house in the center of the former French Concession.

The house was at 134 Yanqing Road near Huating Road, within Shanghai's biggest historic area under municipal protection.

A former resident of the area, who asked for anonymity, reported the case to Shanghai Daily yesterday.

The house is now a construction site but the developer of the project is not known.

Zheng Shiling, a renowned professor of old houses of Tongji University, said: "The house is within the central former French Concession where many constructions are of extraordinary historic value."

He also said the house and many others in the area were banned from demolition, and that developers were restricted to conducting interior decoration only.

A security guard at a nearby building said the house was completely dismantled early this month. He said its developer was a native of Zhejiang Province.

Zhang Yijia, an official from the urban sculpture and landscape department of the Shanghai Urban Planning Administration Bureau, said she would immediately alert the watchdogs to investigate the case.

The bureau works together with the city's housing authority to manage the conservation of heritage houses.

The house was within a courtyard between Huating Road and Changshu Road in Xuhui District. Residents said it was similar to many of the other houses in the courtyard, each of which has two stories and an arched gate.

The courtyard is within the Hengshan Road/Fuxing Road Conservation Area, the city's single biggest zone of its kind with an area of 7.75 square kilometers covering Jing'an, Luwan, Xuhui and Changning districts.

Elderly residents also referred to the area as "Shangzhijiao" which means the city's "ideal location for living."

It has hundreds of old villas and department houses mostly built by foreigners during the 1920s and 1930s.

Experts said the houses reflected architectural styles from Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Italy and Spain.

Shanghai's old house protection law states anyone who dismantles a historic building would be required to restore the building and pay a fine of three to five times the cost of rebuilding.

(Shanghai Daily October 26, 2007)