Sassoon House, as the first building in the Far East, was the tallest building in the bund in the past. The total height of Sassoon House is 77 meters. It has 10 floors on the No.20 (at the mouth of Nanjing Road) in the bund of Shanghai. Sassoon House was invested by Cathay Land Co. Ltd belonging to E.D.Sassoon & Co. The total area of Sassoon House is 36317 square meters.

In 1872, Jewish British-man Elias David Sassoon founded the new E.D.Sassoon & Co in Bombay and set up its branch in Shanghai in 1877. Up to 1929, this new building of E.D.Sassoon & Co of Shanghai Branch was finished. The architectural style of this new building was Art Deco. The dark-green pyramidal copper top with the height of 19 meters was a prominent symbol of the Bund. The designers was from Palmer＆Turner Architects and Surveyors. The top-class luxurious Cathay Hotel in Shanghai at that time was operated on the west ground floor as well as the floors from the fourth to ninth floor. There were nine distinct guest rooms with different styles. In 1952, the new-born government took over this building. In 1956, it was re-opened in the name of Peace Hotel. In 1965, the Peace Hotel merged Palace Hotel. And then the northern building and southern building of Peace Hotel appeared. The southern building of Peace Hotel was built in 1906. It was the first modernized building in Shanghai modern architectural history. This building (Palace Hotel) had the first group of sanitary equipment and two elevators in Shanghai. It also had the earliest roof garden in Shanghai. Sun Yat-sen once worked here for China before he acceded to the president of China in Nanjing. The wedding ceremony of Jiang Jieshi and Song Meiling was also held in this building. In 1992, Peace Hotel was listed into the world-renowned hotels by World Hotel Organization.

Sassoon was a British man. He was the earliest foreign adventurer in Shnghai. He did business in Shanghai for the longest time and had most treasure among the foreign businessmen. He was considered to be the King of Real Estate of Shanghai at that time.