Building on western corner of Duddell Street / Queen's Road Central junction [1878-1919] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Building on western corner of Duddell Street / Queen's Road Central junction [1878-1919]

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Submitted by Admin on Sun, 2014-04-13 15:02
Current condition: 
Demolished / No longer exists
Date Place completed: 
c.1878-01-01 (Month, Day are approximate)
Date Place demolished: 
1919-01-01

A 1911 map (Plate 3-4, Mapping Hong Kong) gives the address as 4, Queen's Road Central.

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Submitted by Herostratus on Fri, 2016-11-18 14:29.

The Bank of China, opposite Oriental Bank, supplanted the building specially erected for the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, which on the expiry of the lease was forced to find temporary accommodation in Connaught House, on the opposite side of Queen's Road, pending the erection of their present building.

 

Source: Old Hong Kong by Colonial Vol 1

Submitted by David on Thu, 2018-12-06 19:21.

Notes from Herostratus:

This is the Chartered Bank Building at 4 Queens Road, completed in 1878. The building is an almost exact match for the 3rd Generation P&O building built on the praya, later Des Voeux Road, in 1887, I believe the design is in the Italianate style. The architects for the P&O building in 1887 were Bird & Palmer (today called P&T Architects & Engineers Ltd). In 1878 a previous iteration of the firm, then named Wilson & Salway built the Chartered Bank Building. A list of major buildings designed by the firm can be found here

We know the Chartered Bank building was completed in 1878 at 4 Queens Road because of a speech on 16th May 1957 by Mr Small, then manager of the Chartered bank, at the foundation stone laying of the 1959 Chartered Bank building:

By 1878 we had moved to premises at what is now No. 4 Queen's Road, and in 1890, when the lease expired, our nomadic progress continued with a further move to accommodation in Connaught House, on the site of what is now Edinburgh House.

In the 1890s the building was used by the Hong Kong Trading Company Limited. They were general house furnishers according to their sign on the building

Submitted by eurasian_david on Sat, 2022-05-21 04:34.

Apparently there was once a well at No. 4 Queen's Road Central? 

 

“A WELL TO BE CLOSED.

Mr. F. Browne, Government Analyst, certified that the water obtained from a well at No. 4 Queen’s Road Central was so tainted with impurities as to be unfit for potable purposes and likely to prove injurious to health.”

Source: The Hong Kong Weekly Press, page 459, 2nd December 1899