Few days ago, on a still hot and humid 35 degrees celsius end-of-summer weekend, we were struggling to find something fun and cultural at the same time, without melting under the sun.

We decided to visit Shanghai 1933, a former slaughterhouse beautifully crafted from concrete (and yes we found some slightly fresher air there!). It’s just a 15 minutes Uber drive from our home, located in the historic Hongkou district of Shanghai. Designed originally by British architects, and built in 1933 by Chinese developers, the building was originally intended for use as a slaughterhouse but served a number of purposes over the years from medicine factory, cold storage facility, to its current incarnation as a ‘commercial hub for creative industries’. Today Shanghai 1933 is home to Ferrari’s Owners Club of China, the Cigar Ambassador Club and several art galleries, designers showrooms, photographic studios. The building was commissioned by the then Shanghai Municipal Council with the high-quality cement aggregate required to support the load-bearing needs of the building was imported from the Portsmouth area of the UK. After being abandoned and falling into disrepair the building was extensive restoration in 2008. Built around a central atrium, which served as the abattoir’s workshops, each floor is connected to an outer shell by a series of interlocking ramps, bridges, and spiral staircases which were designed to control the flow of both people and cattle being processed through the building.

Olivia had the best time running around and playing hide and seek with dad in all of the 26 air bridges of the slaughterhouse, climbing to the tallest part of the building, and photobombing fashion photo shooting 😉 (this also a cool spot for fashion magazines and brands).

If you are visiting Shanghai and want some info about 1933 click here.

Enjoy, Paola

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