Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/161

Rh Shanghai Bank, a handsome granite structure in classical Roman Corinthian style, surmounted by a large dome. Next to this is the City Hall, a striking building in Romanesque style, carried out in stucco work, containing a theatre, library, museum, and several halls—approached by a fine stone staircase—in which dances and other gatherings are held. In front of the main entrance stands a large fountain, consisting of four allegorical figures supporting a bowl, from the centre of which rises another figure holding a cornucopia. This was the gift, in 1864, of Mr. Dent, a former merchant of the Colony. Opposite to the entrance of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Des Voeux Road is a tastefully laid-out garden, held in reserve by the bank. In a recess at the entrance to this enclosure is a life-size bronze statue of Sir Thomas Jackson, a former manager of the institution, who received the honour of a baronetcy in recognition of his financial services to the Colony. Upon a site adjacent to this open space, where Chater Street and Wardley Street cross one another, a bronze jubilee statue has been erected of H.M. the late Queen Victoria, enthroned under a canopy of Portland stone. Near by stand a bronze statue of H.M. the King, presented by Sir Paul Chater, C.M.G., and another of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, the gift of Mr. James Jardine Bell-Irving, both of which were unveiled by H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught when, as Inspector-General of the Forces, he visited the Colony on February 6, 1907. A statue of H.M. Queen Alexandra, subscribed for by the community as a memorial of the coronation of Their Majesties in 1902, and one of H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, presented by Mr. H. N. Mody, are also to be placed in the same square at an early date. Between this square and the adjacent cricket-ground the new Law Courts are in course of construction. The principal elevation, facing west, will represent the classic Ionic order, and will be crowned by a Doric dome terminating at a height of 130 feet from the ground. The front of the building will be split into fifteen bays with Ionic columns, the bases of which will be 6 feet 3 inches square. Over the centre of the front will be a pediment containing a semi-circular opening, above which the royal arms will be supported by figures of Mercy and Truth. From the main tier will rise a granite statue of Justice, 9 feet in height. Another notable addition to the architectural features of the city is being made by the erection of a splendid set of Government Offices, four storeys in height, in the centre of the European business area. The building will occupy a prominent corner site, more than half an acre in extent, with frontages to Connaught Road, Pedder Street, and Des Voeux Road. The principal elevation, facing Pedder Street, will be a free treatment of the Renaissance style carried out in local granite and Amoy bricks. The line of the parapet, 78 feet from the ground, will be broken by ornamental gables, and each of the eastern angles will be surmounted by a graceful turret. In the centre of the northern front, overlooking the harbour, a bold square clock-tower will rise to a height of over 200 feet. At the other end of Pedder Street may be seen the unpretentious and ill-arranged structure, containing the Post Office, Supreme Court, and some of the other Government Offices, which these two new buildings are intended to supersede. In line with it, at the entrance to Queen's Road, stands an ugly clock-tower, erected by public subscription in 1862, at the suggestion of Mr. J. Dent, whose original design had to be stripped of its original decorative features, owing to the waning enthusiasm of the community.

Chinatown stretches westward from Pottinger Street. It consists of a labyrinth of streets, many of them very narrow, closely packed at all hours of the day with a jostling mass of humanity. Here are to be seen reproduced all the familiar phases of Chinese life—squalid-looking shops packed with a strange medley of things; artisans patiently and deftly plying their trades as braziers, tinkers, or carpenters; itinerant vendors of food-stuffs and other commodities, stooping under heavy loads suspended from bamboo poles borne across the shoulders; and urchins at play in the less-frequented courts and alleys. It is in this densely overcrowded area that plague and small-pox find a stronghold, but within the last decade the Sanitary Board has done much to combat the spread of these diseases, by making house-to-house