Photos of Mercantile Bank and Holland House | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Photos of Mercantile Bank and Holland House

Primary tabs

Submitted by C on Sun, 2012-10-28 01:13

Has anyone come across photos of the Mercantile Bank Building (7 Queen's Road Central) and Holland House (9 Queen's Road Central)?  Both were demolished in the late 1980s to make way for the present 9 Queen's Road Central building.

Forum: 
General
  • Log in or register to post comments

Submitted by David on Sun, 2012-10-28 12:49.

I'd start with the map of places (https://gwulo.com/map-of-places). Look at the places near the area you're interested in, and check their photos to see if they also show the above buildings.

If they do, please let us know which photos show them, to make it easier for future searches.

Regards, David

Submitted by C on Mon, 2012-10-29 14:38.

Thanks David, but unfortunately I have no luck in finding a photo showing the buildings.  There are some showing the old Mercantile Bank building at the northwest corner of Queen's Road Central and Ice House Street though.

Submitted by David on Mon, 2012-10-29 17:40.

How about the views looking down into Central from above, eg http://gwulo.com/node/7402 / http://gwulo.com/node/4862 / http://gwulo.com/node/8548

Do any of them show the right buildings?

regards, David

Submitted by C on Tue, 2012-10-30 19:26.

Thanks David!  I think I see the upper floors of 7 Queen's Road Central in the 1963 photo, but they could belong to No. 5.

Submitted by Old timer on Tue, 2012-10-30 20:26.
There are some photos of Holland House on HK Man Flickr album. It was an elegant building, one of my favourites and designed by Palmer and Turner (P and T) for Hongkong Land. I believe it was constructed in two phases, the first part occupying the corner of Ice House Street and Queen's Road Central. The second phase took up the adjacent lot of 7 Queen's Road Central (Mercantile Bank Building). The architecture of these buildings was truly timeless and lovely to behold.

Submitted by Old timer on Tue, 2012-10-30 20:47.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that Mercantile Bank Building was the offices of Deutsch-Asiatische Bank. If you go to their website db.com and thread your way through to the Asia Pacific region and their history, they have a picture of the building.

Submitted by C on Sun, 2012-11-04 16:24.

Thanks, Old timer!

I was not able to find a photo on this page of the Deutsche Bank web site:
https://www.db.com/asiapacific/en/content/history.html

Some pictures of Holland House on the HK Man (Hong Kong is Disappearing) blog:
http://blog.yahoo.com/_IF245372WCR2FDZUINDAUKDS3Q/articles/44697
http://blog.yahoo.com/_IF245372WCR2FDZUINDAUKDS3Q/articles/43775

It is worth noting that the Chinese characters on the street sign in the last photograph are red.

Submitted by Old timer on Sun, 2012-11-11 20:59.
Thanks for the feedback. The link to the db website is correct but you have to click on the dat '1900' and then a small thumbnail image of the building will appear. I'm sorry but I haven't yet found a large good quality photo of the building

Submitted by C on Mon, 2012-11-12 14:39.

Hi Old timer,

Thanks again, but the building under "1900" does not look like the Mercantile Building at 7 Queen's Road Central in the 1980s.  The latter is more like a nondescript 1950s building.  I am not sure if it and the Holland House were one building or two separate buildings.

By the way, did the Mercantile Bank ever have any other branches in Hong Kong?

Submitted by Old timer on Mon, 2012-11-12 22:09.
Dear C, As far as I can make out, the building shown on the DB website was 7 QRC and existed up until the 1950's after which it was demolished and rebuilt into the easterly portion/wing of Holland House (extending along Queen's Road Central down as far as, but not including, 5 QRC). The main portion of Holland House was completed before WW2 and comprised 9 QRC and I guess extended northwards some way along Ice House Street. The easterly wing wasn't completed until the late 50s. In the late 1980s , Holland House ( including the easterly wing mentioned above) , Fu House and Bank of Canton were all demolished and redeveloped into present day 9 QRC/Galleria. Personally, i loved the old Holland House, maybe because of it's wedge shape or the austere/ monumental architectural style that P & T were adopting at the time. Regards

Submitted by C on Tue, 2012-11-13 10:32.

Dear Old timer,

Thanks again for the detailed info and clarification!  I always thought that Holland House was a post-war building.  It was an elegant building, but probably underappreciated and not remembered by many.