The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

Colonialism, Power, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank
9.4 | Hongkong Shanghai Bank, 1886. First floor plan (author’s reconstruction).
tor were marked out as bazaars for the Chinese. 32 Legislation was passed in
1877 and 1888 to prevent natives from infringing on the European quarter
and to create residential reservations south of Hollywood Road and in Caine
Road, where Europeans desired exclusive control. 33
In the 1886 headquarters building, spatial segregation operated
horizontally in the office area and vertically in the living quarters as outlined
above. In addition, utilities were segregated. Newspapers reported
that there were “well fitted lavatories for the European clerks,” implying
that these lavatories were not to be used by the Chinese clerks who worked
at the other side of the banking hall. Furthermore, in a large European
kitchen in the basement only “European” food for the European staff was
prepared; Chinese cooks and other Chinese employees cooked for themselves
in a separate Chinese kitchen in the basement, “fitted with inexpensive
and primitive appliances.” 34