HSBC Building (Hong Kong) - Lion Statues

Lion Statues

Right lion statue (Stitt) The lion statues of HSBC Main Building

When HSBC decided to build its third Headquarters at 1 Queen's Road Central, opened in 1935, it commissioned two bronze lions from Shanghai-based British sculptor W W Wagstaff (d 1977, aged 82). This commission was inspired by two earlier lions that had been ordered for the new Shanghai office opened in 1923. Cast by J W Singer & Sons in the English town of Frome, to a design by Henry Poole RA, these lions had quickly become part of the Shanghai scene, and passers-by would affectionately stroke the lions in the belief that power and money would rub off on them. They became known as Stephen and Stitt: an in-joke. Stephen was named for A G Stephen, formerly Manager Shanghai, and in 1923 the Chief Manager of HSBC, and G H Stitt, the then Manager Shanghai. Stephen is depicted roaring, Stitt quiescent, and again insiders said that this represented the characters of these two famous bankers.

The Hong Kong lions were to be considerably larger, as befitted the Head Office of the Bank.

Wagstaff worked with "Shanghai Arts and Crafts" foreman Chou Yin Hsiang who in an interview with John Loch of HSBC's house magazine "Group News" in June 1977 recalled that when he first joined Arts and Crafts he worked with Wagstaff for two years to make the lions, without having to learn a word of English: Wagstaff spoke perfect Shanghai dialect. Hunch-backed, Wagstaff was nicknamed "Lao Doo Pei", meaning "Old Hunchback". His son, inevitably, was called "Sau Doo Pei" - "Young Hunchback." Wagstaff had two sons - Don, killed in Naval service in the war, and Alex, killed while interned in Shanghai by the Japanese. Chou Yin Hsiang himself came to Hong Kong in 1935, and by 1977 was the proprietor of Jeh Hsing Metal Works - and still casting bronze for HSBC.

Like the Shanghai lions, the Hong Kong lions became objects of veneration, and focii of the Bank's perceived excellent feng shui. Young couples still bring their toddlers to stroke the paws and noses of the statues hoping for luck and prosperity.

When the 1935 building closed its doors for the last time June 26, 1981 the Lions moved to the annexe June 19, 1981 The commencement demolishion July 6, 1981 by China Swiss Engineers. The lions were temporarily moved on 4 June 1982 to Statue Square, opposite main entrance. As a mark of the respect the lions were held in, the move to Statue Square, and the move back in 1985, were accompanied by the Chairman Sir Michael Sandberg and senior management of the Bank and the placement of the lions both temporarily and in their current locations was made only after extensive consultations with feng shui practitioners.

Their 2-year sojourn in Statue Square aside, the lions have only left their positions as guardians of the Des Voeux Road entrance of the Bank once: they were confiscated by the Japanese and sent to Japan to be melted down. Luckily the war ended before this could happen, and the lions were recognised by an American sailor in a dockyard in Osaka in 1945. They were returned a few months later and restored to their original positions in October 1946.

The Hong Kong lions are also called Stephen and Stitt, and the Hong Kong Stephen has bullet or shrapnel scars in its left hind-quarters dating from the fighting in the Battle of Hong Kong. When this pair of lions was used as the model for the pair commissioned for the new UK Headquarters of HSBC in 2002, Zambian-born New Zealand sculptor Mark Kennedy was asked not to reproduce these "war wounds" in the copies. They had to earn their own battle-scars.

There are also a few HSBC branches sporting copies of these lions:

The detailed step by step exact time line can be found in the book produced by George Wimpey International Ltd. This book carries a very detailed pictorial diary of the buildings progress from conception to completion. Also the book in slip case (1 Queen's Road Central)commissioned by HSBC which was presented to various chosen recipients at the grand opening. These two books hold all the FACTUAL details provided by HSBC:

• Canada
  • 3640 Victoria Park Avenue, Toronto - 2 lions flank the entrance to the branch
  • 230 Spadina Avenue, Toronto - 2 small lions at entrance to branch
  • HSBC building, Hastings and Keefer, Vancouver, BC - 2 lions
  • HSBC Branch No. 3 Road at Saba Road, Richmond, BC - standing lions and since stolen

• Britain
  • HSBC World Head Office, Canary Wharf, London - clones of originals in Shanghai

• China
  • Pudong Development Bank Building (former HSBC Shanghai office) - replicas of origins now stored at Shanghai Museum

See also: Imperial guardian lions