The Great Northern Telegraph Building (), also known as the Telegraph Building (电报大楼), is a historical building on the Bund, Shanghai, China.

Location and history

The building is situated at No. 7 on the Bund and was built by for Danish Great Northern Telegraph Company. This piece of land of size 724 square metres was originally the property of Russell & Company. On August 15 1881, the Great Northern Telegraph Company rented the original building on the site. The company set up first telephone switch in Shanghai within the building in 1882. With original building deteriorating, the company decided to build a new one on its site, designed by the architectural firm Atkinson & Dallas. However, a large fire in October 1905 atop the offices under construction and took over two hours to extinguish. The roof collapsed and the entire third floor and attic had to be rebuilt. This delayed the completion of the building for a whole year. The building, which eventually opened in January 1908, also housed the offices of the British owned Eastern Extension and the American owned Commercial Cable telegraph companies. The building housed some state-of-the art equipment at the time of its completion, including a pneumatic tube system to handle the telegrams and a lift made by Smith & Stevens of London. There were public telephones in the ground floor hall. Originally there were three Bund entrances leading to the respective company offices. The Great Northern Telegraph Company occupied the ground floor until 1921, when it moved to its newly completed building at 4 Avenue Edward VII (currently 34

East Yan'an Road Yan'an Road (; Shanghainese: Yi'ue Lu) is a road in Shanghai, a major east–west thoroughfare through the centre of the city. The modern Yan'an Road is in three sections, reflecting three connected streets which existed pre-1945: Avenue Edward ...

), behind the Asia Building. In 1945, the

Commercial Bank of China The Imperial Bank of China (Traditional Chinese: 中國通商銀行, Simplified Chinese: 中国通商银行) was the first Chinese-owned bank modelled on Western banks and banking practices. It was founded in Shanghai by Mr. Sheng Xuanhuai in 189 ...

, which was previously next door at No. 6, moved into the building. The building was later used by the Yangtze River Shipping Company. Since 1995, the building is largely used by the Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited. The Royal Thai Consulate-General also occupied parts of the building until 2008.

References

{{coord, 31.2371, 121.4859, type:landmark_region:CN, display=title Buildings and structures completed in 1908 Buildings and structures in Shanghai 1908 establishments in China The Bund