St Georges Building (1st Generation) | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

St Georges Building (1st Generation)

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St Georges Building (1st Generation)
Submitted by Paulo
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PaulO
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St George's Building (1st Generation)
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Submitted by jill on Fri, 2019-10-25 23:14.

Is it possible to date this photo from the design of the cars and the woman's clothes? I ask because my uncle, Leslie Beal Warren moved the offices of his sanitary engineering company, C.E. Warren & Co. Ltd., into the St George's Building in 1938, where they remained until he wound the company up in 1941. It's a very nice photo.

Submitted by David on Sat, 2019-10-26 18:51.

That is a good photo.

Looking at the building site on the left, where the second phase of the first Alexandra House will be built, the photo should have been taken around the same time as this view from 1954:

Last rooftop photo
Last rooftop photo, by pauline

Submitted by Paulo on Tue, 2019-10-29 12:18.

The (Kadoorie Estate) Hong Kong Heritage Project, St Georges Building booklet the tenants of the building in 1936 are noted as follows:

"Current tenants included the respectable Geo K. Hall Brutton & Co.; Solicitors and Agents, Gande Price & Co. Limited; the wine, spirit and cigar merchants, C.E. Warren &Co., a plumbing firm that ran into trouble and was later liquidated, the medical practitioner Filomeno Maria Graca Ozorio and the Kadoorie controlled company The Hongkong Engineering and Construction Co.Ltd.(HKECC). Also office space for government entities including the District Officer and for architects, surveyors and civil engineers Davies, Brooke & Gran."

Submitted by jill on Tue, 2019-10-29 19:55.

Useful to have the 1936 date for the location of C.E. Warren & Co’s offices in the St. George’s Building - thank you Paulo. In the 1930s the company seems to have specialised in high end projects such as for Eucliffe Castle and King Yin Lei. They had to close their Canton office and operation when the Japanese invaded in 1938. It is probable that the evacuation of British families in 1940 reduced the requirement for bathroom projects and new sanitary ware. Certainly my uncle’s final letter to his family from Hong Kong in May 1941 https://gwulo.com/node/38261 emphasizes the lack of business It’s no use trying to start anything here, as conditions are very bad.