The Hongkong Hotel was

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

's first

luxury hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

modelled after sumptuous London hotels. It opened on Queen's Road and

Pedder Street Pedder Street is a major thoroughfare in the core of Hong Kong's Central District. It runs south–north from Queen's Road Central, continues through Des Voeux Road Central, and ends at its intersection with Connaught Road Central. History ...

in 1868, later expanding into the

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbor, harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea were instrume ...

waterfront of

Victoria City Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychell ...

in 1893.

History

The original hotel stood roughly on the site of the present Central Building at Queen's Road Central and Pedder Street. It was owned by The Hongkong Hotel Company, which later became The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited, current owner of

The Peninsula Hotels The Peninsula Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels operated by Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. Founded by the Kadoorie family, the first hotel opened in 1928 and now stands as the oldest in Hong Kong. History Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Limite ...

chain. In the late 1880s the six-storey north wing extension was built on the waterfront, with entrances on Pedder Street, Queen's Road and Praya Central (now

Des Voeux Road Central Des is a masculine given name, mostly a short form (hypocorism) of Desmond. People named Des include: People * Des Buckingham, English football manager * Des Corcoran, (1928–2004), Australian politician * Des Dillon (disambiguation), severa ...

). Competing in all respects with the Peak Hotel, owned by The Star Ferry Company, the management provided a special launch to meet arriving passengers on incoming P&O mail steamers and ferry them direct to the hotel's pier. A shop of Kuhn & Komor was located on the ground floor of the hotel, along Queen's Road. After the north wing burned down in 1929, the original part of the hotel, especially the large Gripps Restaurant, continued to be popular with the public, but the hotel eventually closed in 1952. The hotel building was bought by the owner of the 1949

Hong Kong Derby The Hong Kong Derby is a Hong Kong Thoroughbred horse race held annually since 1873. Restricted to horses four-years-old only since 1981, the race is run in mid-March and is the premier event on the domestic racing programme with a purse of HK$18 m ...

Champion and lead investor of a company which was later renamed Central Development Limited. Extensive renovation was done, but the part which once housed the popular Gripps Restaurant was torn down. In 1958, Central Building opened as a modern retail and office building, as it has remained at the present day.

The north wing

The six-storey north wing of the hotel facing the waterfront opened in 1893.Feature: Buildings for Pedder Street since colonialisation
,

Sing Pao ''Sing Pao Daily News'' () is one of the oldest Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong, first published on 1 May 1939 by the Sing Pao Newspaper Company Limited () under Ho Man-fat. It was initially published every three days, later becoming a daily. ...

, 29 October 2005 It replaced the Melcher's Building, which itself was formerly owned by Dent & Co., where the west wing of its "princely hong" headquarters was located. The north wing of the hotel burned down on New Year's Day, 1926 and in 1928 the site was acquired by

Hong Kong Land Hongkong Land (HKL) is a property investment, management and development group with commercial and residential property interests across Asia. It owns and manages some 850,000 sq. m. of office and retail property in Asia, principally in Hong K ...

and Gloucester Tower constructed in 1932. It was redeveloped into The Landmark in 1979.Trevor Bedford, Hong Kong Land, reported in "Meeting heritage challenge", South China Morning Post, 30 November 1978

References

{{coord, 22.28118, 114.15844, display=title Hotel buildings completed in 1868 History of Hong Kong Defunct hotels in Hong Kong Demolished buildings and structures in Hong Kong Hotels established in 1866 Hotels disestablished in 1926 1866 establishments in Hong Kong 1926 disestablishments in Hong Kong Demolished hotels Defunct companies of Hong Kong

History

The north wing

See also

References