Yangtesze

SIMON FIELDHOUSE

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No. 26 The Yangtsze Insurance Association Building - Shanghai

No. 26 The Yangtsze Insurance Association Building

Sir Havilland de Sausmarez, an official of the British Supreme Court in Shanghai, who presided over the formal opening of the building on 29 April 1918, commented that the ‘wonderful’ new building reflected the giant strength of the Yangtsze Insurance Association which had ‘piled story on story until on a rainy day the top of the building is lost in the mists of Shanghai.

The company was founded in 1862 by the American firm of Russell & Co. to insure the cargoes and boats of its Shanghai Steam Navigation Company (see page 128). It was reorganised as an independent concern, with a board composed largely of British directors, aftec the collapse of Russell & Co. in 1891. The Yangtsze Insurance Association’s Renaissance style, seven-story building, faced with specially impacted gray Japanese granite, was designed by Tog Wilson and P. Forbes Bothwell of Palmer and Turner. Apart from the entrance hall, the ground floor was especially designed for the Mercantile Bank of India, which had opened its offices thece in March 1918. The bank was originally formed as the Chartered Mercantile Bank and had established premises on the Bond in the 1850s. The new bank was founded in 191 following a long period of closure during which its affairs were maintained by Jardine, Matheson & Co.

The Insurance Association’s entrance hall to the southeast of the building was lined from floor to ceiling with marble and had a white marble balcony halfway up, to their general offices on the first floor. The general manager’s room and boardroom were located on the second and third floors, whilst the rest of the building was let out as apartments. The Senior British Naval Cfficer kept his office on the fourth floor. The two upper floors provided an expansive single residence for the directors, with a roof garden above at a height of 115 feet. he Union Insurance Society of Canton, which was amalgamated with the Yangtsze Insurance Association in 1926, transferred its offices from No. 5 the Bond to No. 26 in 1935. In the late 1930s the Danish Consulate and the Italian Chamber of Commerce had premises in the building. Presently occupied by the China Everbright Bank, the main banking hail is lined with crudely sculpted Romanesque friezes and the building itself is conspicuously leaning from the vertical. However, the original heraldic carvings above the central first floor window outside the building have survived, although the Yangtsze Insurance Association’s seal in the centre has been obliterated. Granite which wase carved to represent the bows of a Viking ship, are also still to be found flanking the lintels over the two entrances to the building.