Wan Chai Market

Wan Chai Market operates today inside The Zenith, a residential complex across Wan Chai Road from the market's original home -- a Streamline Moderne building constructed in 1937 on a site that had served as a bullock-cart depot since 1917. That original building, often mislabeled Bauhaus for its rounded corners and horizontal banding, held Japanese occupying forces' body storage in its basement during the Second World War before being renovated in 1961 to keep pace with newer district markets. By the 2000s it needed replacing again: the government announced in 2007 that it would preserve only the facade and front section of the historic structure while rebuilding the market itself, and the working wet market relocated into The Zenith in September 2008, where it operates now as a covered market with fresh seafood, butchered meat and produce stalls on the lower floors and a cooked food centre above for sit-down meals. The 1937 facade survives next door as a Grade III historic building, kept as a streetscape landmark even though it no longer houses any market activity itself. For a Wan Chai visit, the two sit close enough to see both in one stop: the preserved prewar shell as an architectural note, and the working market it was replaced by as the place to actually shop or eat.