On the northwestern side of the People's Square in Shanghai stands one of the few buildings remaining that people from the 1930s would recognize immediately. They would have known it as the Shanghai Race Club's clubhouse, one of the most ornate and elegant race clubhouses in the world at the time.

Modern Shanghai residents knew it as the Shanghai Art Museum although on January 1, 2013, the museum was relocated to its new home in the China Art Palace. The former clubhouse will be closed for a year while authorities decide on the future use of the building.

In the last few days of the museum in Nanjing Road West, thousands flocked to visit the building regarded as Shanghai's center for art.

The artworks in the 12 exhibit halls ranged from traditional oil paintings to pop canvases. The museum was the six-time host of the Shanghai Biennale - the September international festival of art - that attracted artists and enthusiasts from throughout the country and all over the world.

The elegant wood and marble interiors had been home to the museum since it was relocated there in 2000 and most thought the building's neoclassical architecture and the museum's collections were a great combination. The brick-and-stone tower stands 53.3 meters high, with its distinctive four clock faces telling the city what hour it was.

The original building was designed by the British Moorhead & Halse, a leading architectural firm whose works included the Asia Building at No.1 on the Bund.

A popular event

Construction started in 1933 and was completed in 1934. The building has four stories and spread over 42,470 square meters of floor space. The British had brought horse racing to Shanghai and in the 1930s it was one of the most popular events for the city's upper classes. The clubhouse was where people could meet and relax with foreign diplomats, businessmen, bankers, and other socialites. It was a members-only club and you had to be a member or invited by one to enjoy the coffee shops, restaurants and bars on the second and third floors.

On the ground floor were the ticket and betting windows. Look carefully and you can see where the old clubhouse stood overlooking the race course which ran along the area now taken up by the People's Square and the People's Park.

Horse racing has been popular in Britain for hundreds of years and the British introduced it around the world as they gained influence in other countries. Shanghai was no exception when the British first arrived in the city shortly after the First Opium War (1840-42).

In 1850, a group of foreign bankers formed a race committee, the precursor of the Shanghai Race Club, and bought 5.33 hectares of land where Nanjing Road East and Henan Road now stand as a track. The city's first horse race was staged there in the autumn of 1851.

But this track with a diameter of just 750 meters proved too small and horses were often forced off the track during races. But the race track proved lucrative for nearby shops and businesses and the area developed quickly with the price of land there rising steeply. The bankers made a very handsome profit when they sold the land.

The city's second race track was found around today's intersection of Hubei, Zhejiang and Beihai roads which still meet in the oval shape of a race track. This land was acquired by the British after the British army had been fighting the Chinese army, trying to protect its concession during the uprising of Shanghai's Small Sword Society in 1853.

Seeking shelter

The Chinese army was defeated by the cannons of the British, farmlands and homes were destroyed and the British took over other sections of the city. But conflict continued and when the Small Sword Society's uprising expanded again, people flooded into the British Concession for shelter. The shortage of land pushed prices up once again and the race committee sold the race course and looked for a larger space - which they found on the land that is now home to the People's Square and the People's Park.

The gossip of the day suggested that a British rider on a horse measured out the new course, riding from, where today stands the New World Department Store, to the intersection of Huangpi Road North and Nanjing Road West, hammering in marker pegs along the way to mark out the race course area. He roped in this more than 280,000 square meters, an area much larger than the two earlier race courses combined.

But this measurement meant that more than 300 farmers who had lived there had to move and they were given little in compensation for being forced off their land. More than 100 farmers tried to sue for compensation but the cases dragged on and by 1895 they largely remained unsettled.

The large oval race track included an inner and outer track for different races but in the middle there was still much of the original farmland including family graves that had been abandoned by the farmers who had been forced off their land. These too vanished as the land was developed and the middle area of the race course was developed as a sporting area with attractively gardened spaces for tennis, cricket, football and polo.

This course was the largest in the Far East and the Shanghai Race Club held races every week. These were exclusive to foreigners until 1909, when the Chinese were allowed to buy tickets and lay bets.

In 1909, Ye Yiquan built another race course in northeast Jiangwan. This was the International Recreation Club and was run by the Shanghai Recreation Fund. It worked alongside the Shanghai Race Club.

Later the Shanghai Race Club issued lottery tickets in grocery stores and other outlets so that people in other places in the city could bet as well. The results of the races were published in newspapers. As more gambling became involved and the club's profits soared, it began to donate money to hospitals, orphanages and other charities.

It was when gambling on horses in Shanghai was at its peak that the club added the clock tower. The race course had turned the neighborhood into one of the city's most prosperous business areas. The Pacific Hotel, the Park Hotel, the Ever Shining Circuit Cinema, the Shanghai No.1 Department Store and the Shanghai Great World Entertainment Center all enjoyed some of the riches of horse racing in Shanghai.

When the Pacific War broke out in 1941, the Japanese army entered the British Concession and took over the area. The horse racing and gambling business came to an end.

Opposition to racing

After Japan was defeated in the World War II in 1945, Shanghai's British community wanted horse racing back but the Chinese government of the day rejected this, believing that public opinion opposed horse racing and gambling.

Even though the British stressed that horse racing was a great sport and just a form of recreation, most Chinese could not afford to participate other than to gamble. Shanghai newspapers campaigned against horse racing and warned the Chinese government not to accept British money to reinstate horse racing in the city.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the first mayor of Shanghai, Chen Yi, made it clear in March 1950 that the race course would be turned into public space. The Shanghai government took the property over and turned the north section of the course into People's Park and the south section became People's Square.

It took only 85 days after the government decided to establish People's Park for it to open for its first visitors on the National Day. More than 13,000 trees were planted and 248 tons of decorative rocks were added to the landscaping. Rare plants were donated by private citizens and organizations.

With the metro construction and other developments, the park has lost some of its original space - it now covers 9.82 hectares of its former 15 hectares. But the park and the square remain the city's traditional center.

The old clubhouse, however, is in the end, all that remains of horse racing history in the city. It became the Shanghai Art Museum in 2000 but as the museum grew and its exhibitions and exhibits also grew, it became obvious that the building was not large enough to accommodate its future.

When the noted contemporary artist Wu Guanzhong donated 87 works to the museum, it did not have the space to exhibit these. There are moves to have a gallery in the new museum dedicated to his art. At this stage no one knows exactly how the clubhouse will be used in the future. It is an anachronism in modern Shanghai, a remnant of a glamorous and forgotten past but a significant and beautiful artifact.