The former, now century-old Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation ((HSBC) Building, situated just before the El Hogar Filipino Building at Juan Luna Street, going towards the Pasig River, was designed in the then prevailing Neo-Classical Revival Style seen in many office buildings of the era by British architect G.H. Hayward (who worked out of Hong Kong) and built, from 1921 to 1922, by contractor Oscar F. Campbell.
The former HSBC Building
The building was inaugurated on September 22, 1922 with Acting Governor General of the Philippines Charles Emmett Yeater doing the honors.
Check out “El Hogar Filipino Building”
HSBC, which established its first branch at a former wooden building along Rosario Street, Binondo on November 11, 1875, is the first and oldest foreign international financial institution in the Philippines. It was, very much, a vital force in the Philippine economy, helping finance the sugar industry and the building of railways, among others.
The five-storey, concrete-encased steel structure, with its unique double finial architectural feature which highlights its corner main entrance, stands on a 10,706 sq. m. lot. It had 20-inch armored concrete walls reinforced by two networks of twisted steel bars and treasury vaults with 1 m. (40 in.) thick encasing walls. The ground floor had 7 m. (23 ft.) high ceilings while upper floors had ceilings as high as 4.9 m. (16 ft.).
The buildings lower floors were then occupied by HSBC, while the upper floors were leased out to Smith Bell & Co. Ltd., representative of Sun Life Insurance of Canada, among others. After World War II, the building housed the British Consulate from 1946 to the1960s as well as the William H. Quasha Law Office. When Citibank moved its business from the FNCB Building to Makati. Thereafter, HSBC followed suit and vacated the building and moved to Makati in 1971.
For many years, the former HSBC Building was in a state of neglect. Renamed the Hamilton Building, it was, for many years, the bodega of a lighting fixtures supplier. Its facade dingy, with almost a century’s worth of grime, graffiti and gunk and its main entrance door was blocked by street people who seemed to have camped in the premises.
When Noble Place, adjacent to the former HSBC Building, broke ground on November 2014, and it seemed like the old, abandoned and derelict building was next. In March 2017, conservation groups were alerted that the windows of the building were being removed.
The main entrance
However, the new owner assured heritage advocates that he appreciated heritage buildings and would not demolish the edifice, revealing that he plans to adaptively reuse the structure through retrofitting and restoration: partly as a restaurant (now the modern artistic bistro – Grand Café 1919) on the ground floor, and the rest of the floors will be office spaces for lease.
Though the interiors were redecorated, the 7 m. high ceiling of the bank’s former lobby, the intricate grille windows and the columns’ Corinthian capitals were retained. A replica of the commemorative plaque originally found at the building’s main entrance was enhanced in polychrome. The Neo-Classical façade, which lends an air of timeless elegance to the building’s exterior, was scrubbed up and repainted.
Former HSBC Building: 117 Juan Luna cor. Valentin St. (formerly Callejon San Gabriel), Binondo, Manila 1006.