The
Hongkong and
Shanghai Banking Corporation
Mongkok Agency
Architects:
Palmer & Turner
THE HOMEXONG AND SHANGHAI MANLANGORAKUTA
The new premises of the Mongkok agency of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation were formally opened at the beginning of January by Mrs. M.W. Turner, the wife of the Chief Manager.
At the opening ceremony, the Hon. Michael W. Turner said in part: "When the Hongkong Bank was founded about 90 years ago and established its Head Office on the Island of Hongkong, Mongkok was the centre of fishing industry. As its name then indicated, it was the rock from which the fisher folk look- ed out for shoals of fish or perhaps for the incoming of sailing vessels: it was in fact the Cape of Good Hope of Kowloon. Times have changed since then and I understand that, due to the vagaries of pronunciation, Mongkok now means "busy corner", and a busy corner it has certainly turned out to be since the war, as it is now the focal point of a seething population engaged in the continual- ly expanding industrial activity of the peninsula.
"Hongkong, as you know, has long enjoyed a well-earned position as the greatest centre of entrepot trade in the East, and recently it has acquir- ed an additional role also, that of being the home of striving and grow- ing industries ranging from an infinite variety of domestic industries and small factories to the large tex- tile mills which rival the world's best. and more and more of these enter- prises are being centred here on the mainland.
"Striking evidence of the courage. enterprise and success of our local industrialists is amply demonstrated by the wealth of the peaceful pro-
Photograph of the new building on the corner of Nathan Rord and Argyle Street with a detail of the entrance below.
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THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION
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