In 1880, the British merchants in London established the Shanghai Waterworks Company, and the following year, they constructed a water plant along the Huangpu River. The plant was located at 830 Yangshupu Road, designed by British designer Hart, commenced in 1881, and completed two years later. On June 29, 1883, Li Hongzhang, then the Minister of Commerce for the Beiyang Government, turned the valve to open the water gate, marking the official completion of China’s first modern water plant.
In the 1930s, the water plant continued to expand, tripling its land area and becoming the largest water plant in the Far East, now known as the Yangshupu Waterworks. The total area of various buildings within the plant is 12,800 square meters, featuring a brick-concrete structure with diverse orientations. The architecture is in the traditional British castle style, with load-bearing walls made of clear water bricks, adorned with red brick waist lines, and surrounded by crenelated parapets with notches. The crenelated parapets, window frames, and waist lines are all outlined with cement to create a convex line, while the wall junctions are shaped like cement corner stones, resembling a medieval English castle, especially with its decorative elements, making this building an anomaly among industrial plants in Shanghai. The opening hours are subject to the daily operational status.
