Gordon Hall, British Concession.

The British Concession was the oldest foreign concession in Tientsin, dating from 1860.  It was leased in perpetuity to the British Crown and occupied some 200 acres on the left bank of Pei Ho River. The seat of administration was at Gordon Hall, overseeing Victoria Park.

A bustling commercial street cut through most of the foreign concessions, with a different name depending on which concession it cut through. In the British concession, it was known as Victoria Street, and it played host to numerous headquarters of international banks, as well as merchant houses.

A de facto American concession was administered from 1869, as part of the British concession.  Victoria Street became Woodrow Wilson Street here, and there is a clear distinction between the buildings here and in the British Concession.  These are starkly commercial, bourgeois/beaux-arts and monumental.

This gallery takes one through both concessions…

…the British

Mediaeval style building flanking Victoria Park.

Another building flanking Victoria Park.

The Tientsin Club, flanking Victoria Park.

Victoria Park and the monstrosity the Chinese have built atop the former Gordon Hall.

Hong Kong Shanghai Bank building, along Victoria Street.

The headquarters of Jardine, Matheson & Co.

The Russo-Asiatic Bank, Victoria Street.

The Yokohama Specie Bank.

The Jiuan Savings Bank.

The Joint Savings Society Bank.

The Tientsin Land Investment Company.

Headquarters of Butterfield & Swire.

Citibank.

Victoria Street ends with the American Navy Club.

…and (possibly) the American Concession

Unfortunately, I did not manage to properly document the buildings in this part of the concession.

Leopold Apartments.