Russo-Chinese Bank - Tientsin - 1896
Cnr Victoria Rd & Consular Rd, British Concession.
Representing Czarist commercial interests, the Russo-Chinese Bank had been established by Imperial Decree on 10 December 1895 with its head office at St Petersburg. It had branches as far afield as Paris, Samarkand, Bombay, Harbin and Vladivostock. The Tientsin branch was opened in 1896. In 1910, the bank was re-organised to become the Russo-Asiatic Bank. Later events in Russia's tumultuous history had a greater effect. After financing the anti-Bolshevik White Russian army, the bank's assets within Russia were expropriated and nationalised in 1918 by the Bolsheviks following the Revolution and Civil War. Like many White Russian enterprises, it continued to operate from exile in Paris until 1926 when it finally closed its doors.
Although Russia did have its own Concession on the other bank of the Hai Ho River, this building is located in the British Concession along Victoria Road, Tianjin's financial district. With its prominent dome and gables, this building is clearly of an earlier era to the 'granite and concrete' banks of the 1920s which surround this one.
Russo-Chinese Bank - Tientsin - 1896
Cnr Victoria Rd & Consular Rd, British Concession.
Representing Czarist commercial interests, the Russo-Chinese Bank had been established by Imperial Decree on 10 December 1895 with its head office at St Petersburg. It had branches as far afield as Paris, Samarkand, Bombay, Harbin and Vladivostock. The Tientsin branch was opened in 1896. In 1910, the bank was re-organised to become the Russo-Asiatic Bank. Later events in Russia's tumultuous history had a greater effect. After financing the anti-Bolshevik White Russian army, the bank's assets within Russia were expropriated and nationalised in 1918 by the Bolsheviks following the Revolution and Civil War. Like many White Russian enterprises, it continued to operate from exile in Paris until 1926 when it finally closed its doors.
Although Russia did have its own Concession on the other bank of the Hai Ho River, this building is located in the British Concession along Victoria Road, Tianjin's financial district. With its prominent dome and gables, this building is clearly of an earlier era to the 'granite and concrete' banks of the 1920s which surround this one.