If you stand still quietly for
long enough you can still hear the sound of the hooves of a thousand cattle and
being coaxed through the concrete maze to their end. Trendy design companies flourish
where once termination was the name of the game.
The smell of blood has been
replaced by freshly ground coffee and muffins and the only shooting that gets
done is by people with cameras not stun guns.
The 1933 Shanghai Slaughterhouse
was designed by the British in an Art Deco style. Apart from being used for its original purpose has
also been used as a medicine factory and for cold storage.
Since I had visited
last there has been some interior work to accommodate niche shops and small design
companies but, like much in China, it is still under construction and there
were small retail units being fitted out.
There were only a few other
people there on this grey cold spring day and so I was able to set up my tripod
and Nikon and get to work uninterrupted.
For anyone with an interest in architecture and a few hours there can be no finer Art Deco building in Shanghai. What a place to die!
I visited that former abattoir a couple of years ago. Quite an interesting conversion.