Industrial & Commercial Bank Building / Asia Life Building [1930-????]

It was built for the Industrial & Commercial Bank, and opened as the the Industrial & Commercial Bank Building on 3rd Feb 1930. Just over one year later, it was bought by the American Asiatic Co, and renamed to the Asia Life Building.

Notes from The Hong Kong Telegraph (1930-02-03, pg7) about the initial opening as the new home of the Industrial & Commercial Bank:

• No. 12, Queen's Road Central.
• [Site was sold to the Bank by the Mission Etrangeres in 1928.] The old shop property, consisting of the Colonial Dispensary, the Tobacco Store and Messrs. Lazarus, was pulled down soon afterwards, and a site of over 8,000 square feet cleared.
• The new building [...] has a frontage of 68 feet and extends right back to the Masonic Hall, a distance of 195 feet.
• A six-storey building
• [Ground floor is the Bank's banking hall. Five upper floors are for office accomodation. Lift & stairs to office floors reached from Zetland Street.]
• The building has cost about two lakhs of dollars.
• The handsome marble work in the interior is the work of Messrs. C. E. Warren & Co. Ltd.

Notes on sale & purchase from HK Telegraph (1931-04-22, pg12):

• Bought by the American Asiatic Underwriters (South China) Fed. Inc., USA in January for over a million dollars.
• Building is now being renamed as the property of the American Asiatic Underwriters, and from here, the new owners will control their connexions throughout South China.