Peace Hotel 和平饭店

About Peace Hotel

The northern building was completed in 1929 as Sassoon House and originally contained the Cathay Hotel. The southern building opened as the Palace Hotel in 1908.

The pair makes a useful architectural comparison across one street junction. The northern building belongs to Victor Sassoon’s Shanghai property history, while the southern building represents an earlier hotel tradition. Exterior viewing gives the clearest shared access; any interior visit follows the present operator’s arrangements.

The hotel opened in 1956, taking over the closed Cathay Hotel's building, which became known as its North Building; in 1965 the former Palace Hotel next door was merged in as the South Building. From 1965 to 2010 the two buildings operated together as the Peace Hotel. Between 1991 and 1994 it was named one of the 'World's Most Famous Hotels' for four consecutive years, and remains the only Chinese hotel to have received that title.

Both buildings were renovated and restructured between 2007 and 2010. In 2010 the North Building reopened as the Shanghai Peace Hotel, run by Canada's Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, while the South Building became the Swatch Art Peace Hotel Art Center, an art space mainly open to artists.

The North Building, formerly the Cathay Hotel or Sassoon House, was built between 1926 and 1929 to a design by Palmer and Turner (公和洋行) for the British-owned Sassoon real estate firm; it rises 77 meters over nine floors and combines Art Deco with Chicago School Gothic detailing. The South Building, formerly the Palace Hotel, was completed in 1908 to a Neo-Renaissance design with white-brick walls divided by red-brick string courses, standing six floors and 30 meters tall over 11,607 square meters.

What to look for

• The 1929 Sassoon House and former Cathay Hotel occupy the north side of Nanjing Road.
• The former Palace Hotel on the south side provides an earlier architectural counterpart.

Location & getting there

Getting to Peace Hotel

Approach the junction of Nanjing East Road and the Bund. Confirm whether your booking or visit concerns the northern hotel building or the southern art-residence building.