A 1933 slaughterhouse designed by the British architectural firm Balfours in a Wudi concrete style — a series of interconnected circular floors and cattle-walk ramps that has been converted into an event and dining complex. The architecture is extraordinary: the interlocking ramps, the octagonal core, and the cattle floors with their elaborate ventilation perforations create a building that is unlike any other surviving structure in Shanghai.
The conversion has maintained the structural skeleton while inserting restaurants and creative businesses into the floor spaces. The building is best approached as an architectural experience; the tenants change frequently. The surrounding Hongkou location, less visited than the French Concession or Bund, gives a sense of working Shanghai residential neighbourhood around it.