Mercantile Bank of India [c.1882-????] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Mercantile Bank of India [c.1882-????]

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Submitted by David on Tue, 2010-09-14 16:20
Current condition: 
Demolished / No longer exists
Date Place completed: 
c.1882-01-01 (Year, Month, Day are approximate)

This building with a curved front stood on the north-west corner of the Queen's Road and Ice House Street junction.

On a 1911 map (plate 3-4, Mapping Hong), it is marked as 'Mercantile Bank of India', at 11, Queen's Road Central.

The Mercantile Bank of India started life as the Mercantile Bank of Bombay, taking the name of the city where it was founded in 1853. It soon changed its name to the Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China, and in 1855 opened its branch in Hong Kong. Trouble in 1893 meant it lost its charter, and was reconstituted as the Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd. In 1959 it was purchased by HSBC. By then its name had been shortened again, to "Mercantile Bank, Ltd".

Sources:

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Comments

Submitted by 80sKid on Wed, 2011-03-23 22:01.

built 1857:  A Century of Hong Kong Island Roads and Streets by Cheng Po Hung,

Submitted by David on Wed, 2014-04-09 21:45.

The 1932 newspaper clipping shows that the Nederlandse Handel-Maatschappij N.V. (Netherlands Trading Society) gave this building as their address. I'm not sure if the Mercantile Bank had moved out by then, or that they shared the building.

Submitted by moddsey on Thu, 2014-04-10 05:37.

From HKGRO, in 1932 the Mercantile Bank Building was located at 7 Queen's Road Central. 

Submitted by David on Thu, 2014-04-10 21:07.

Thanks Moddsey. I don't remember seeing another building here before Edinburgh House was built, so I think the Netherlands Trading Society must have moved in after the Mercantile Bank moved out.

Regards, David

Submitted by David on Sat, 2014-04-12 09:11.

The Hongkong Land's timeline, http://www.hkland.com/about_central/central_time/data/history.swf, says they bought 11, Queen's Rd C. in 1938.

Submitted by Herostratus on Thu, 2016-05-26 17:20.

This Building was Lindsay & Co in 1862

Submitted by David on Tue, 2016-09-13 14:04.

I'd previously set the completion date to 1857, based on the quote from Cheng Po Hung's book mentioned above. After checking the book I believe that date refers to another building. Photos from the 1860s still show Lindsay & Co's building standing, so the building described by this page was completed later.

We still need a completion date, so I've made a guess at "c.1882". That's the year that this bank moved out from Wardley House (see http://gwulo.com/comment/13390#comment-13390) and also the year that the bank leased Section A of ML 2 (see http://gwulo.com/node/33508).

Corrections welcome!

Submitted by Herostratus on Fri, 2016-11-18 14:26.

The building now in the possession of the Netherlands Indische-Bank at the corner of Queen's Road and Ice House Street was erected to house the Mercantile Bank of India Ltd

 

Source: Old Hong Kong by Colonial Vol 1

Submitted by Herostratus on Tue, 2018-08-28 11:37.

The building was designed by Danby & Leigh and completed in 1882. The original Lindsay & Co building still existed, the bank building was built to the east on vacant land.