Holt's House - Hankow - 1918
The Bund, British Concession.
This handsome building was the Hankow office for Butterfield & Swire; formed in 1867 in Shanghai, Butterfield & Swire was one of the biggest and best-known British 'hongs' or trading houses in China. Known by its Chinese name 'Taikoo', it built its trade in shipping, engineering, dockyards, sugar and insurance. It operated, inter alia, the China Navigation Co Ltd which sailed along the China coast between Tientsin, Chefoo, Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong as well as upriver on the Yangtsze to Hankow.
This building replaced the earlier Swire building 'Hankow House' - see my photo at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/16424872190 - built a little further along the Bund which was too small to handle the staff required in the growing river trade. As well as offices, there were apartments on the upper floors for its staff. For a remarkable photo of the building taken in 1920 from the collection of John Swire & Sons, go to the archive at Historical Photographs of China website at hpc.vcea.net/Asset/Preview/dbImage_ID-17950_No-1.jpeg
The name Holt acknowledges one of Butterfield & Swire's foremost business rival and partner in the shipping world, Alfred Holt who operated a shipping company in his name, also known as the Blue Funnel Line.
Holt's House - Hankow - 1918
The Bund, British Concession.
This handsome building was the Hankow office for Butterfield & Swire; formed in 1867 in Shanghai, Butterfield & Swire was one of the biggest and best-known British 'hongs' or trading houses in China. Known by its Chinese name 'Taikoo', it built its trade in shipping, engineering, dockyards, sugar and insurance. It operated, inter alia, the China Navigation Co Ltd which sailed along the China coast between Tientsin, Chefoo, Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong as well as upriver on the Yangtsze to Hankow.
This building replaced the earlier Swire building 'Hankow House' - see my photo at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/16424872190 - built a little further along the Bund which was too small to handle the staff required in the growing river trade. As well as offices, there were apartments on the upper floors for its staff. For a remarkable photo of the building taken in 1920 from the collection of John Swire & Sons, go to the archive at Historical Photographs of China website at hpc.vcea.net/Asset/Preview/dbImage_ID-17950_No-1.jpeg
The name Holt acknowledges one of Butterfield & Swire's foremost business rival and partner in the shipping world, Alfred Holt who operated a shipping company in his name, also known as the Blue Funnel Line.