The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

Shirley Wong
verandahs and shuttered windows shared the uniform classical architectural
language adopted by other waterfront properties, while the landward
portion looking into Queen’s Road featured a massive dome
surmounting the banking hall, which was wrapped with a screen of gigantic
granite columns.
TAIPANS
The grandeur of the 1886 headquarters reflects not just the prosperous state
of the Bank and its ability to afford such extravagance but also the nature of
the European executives as a class. Chief executives in trading houses were
known as taipans—they formed not only the clientele of the Bank but also
its board of directors. After all, it was they who resolved to build a new headquarters,
formulated the brief for the design competition, and subsequently
9.1 | Hongkong Shanghai Bank, 1886. View from southwest, showing dome and colonnaded
banking hall (PH140.1.5).