The yellow Art Deco building stands on the space once occupied by Battambang's open air-market. Designed in 1936 by architect Jean Desbois, who also designed Phnom Penh's central market, it is topped by a square clock-tower. Inside the building's two wings, jewellery shops rub shoulders with barber shops, beauty salons and vendors of dried fish and exotic fruits. In the centre, a few communal kitchens start cooking from the break of dawn and don't stop till nightfall.