Union Brewery building

A recent trip to Shanghai Ecological park along the Suzhou Creek was the opportunity to go and revisit the former Union Brewery factory, a Hudec building that has mostly been forgotten.

Union Brewery / 友啤 started as German owned company in the late 19th century. It then became a Scandinavian owned company. By 1931, it was purchased by investors including ED Sassoon & Co, owner of the Cathay Hotel (today peace Hotel) and Calbeck Mc Gregor, which imported Lanson Champagne to China. A new factory was commissioned in 1935, design was given to Laszlo Hudec. It was completed in 1936.

The 28.800 sqm area also included a large streamline design building. The right part with the angle is very typical of streamline design, echoing Paris Callot building completed in 1933 (see post Paris streamline building).

Comparing the 1937 British map and today satellite, it is clear that the area was surrounded by factories, in particular cotton mills. All those factories were using the river water and dumping used water in it. The Suzhou creek was not as clean and nice as today and sometimes had weird color due to textile dying process in the factories on its sides.

Above sketch shows that only a few buildings remain. The pond on above photos is probably where the main building once stood.

The above add gives a sense on how the beer factory looked inside. Surely very modern and efficient at the time of construction. It had the production capacity for 1 m crates of beer / year, and claimed to be the largest in Asia.

Union Brewery was one of the leading beer brand in Shanghai, along with its competitor Ewoo beer, owned by Jardien & Matheson (Ewoo / 怡和 in Chinese). One of the large company of Shanghai, Union Brewery was listed on the stock exchange. It made both pilsener and brown beer. Beer was advertised as “good for health for young and old”. It was a modern and fashionable drink.

In the 2000’s, the former United Brewery building became the (now long gone) entertainment complex Pier One, with restaurant Mimosa, bar Monsoon and night club Minx. It appears to be currently unused. It is located at 130 Yichang Road / 宜昌路130号 in Putuo district.

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