The First Generation Building
Beaconsfield House site was originally home to the Beaconsfield Arcade (so named for Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield), built in 1878 by then Hong Kong Bank director, Calcutta-born Sephardi Jew Emanuel R Belilios and sold controversially to the government in 1898 (the Legco Public Works Committee resolution passing on Mr Belilios' own vote over a suppressed protest for pecuniary interest disqualification), and across the street from Hong Kong Bank itself and City Hall. Dent's Fountain was later added and donated by Dent & Co..
Beaconsfield was also named for a government building near Government Hill built in the late 19th Century. It was demolished to make way for the French Mission Building of 1917 (at one time also owned by Mr Belilios).
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Famous quotes containing the words the first, generation and/or building:
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—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
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—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love.... It is in the interest of living art and living history that I oppose so-called restoration. What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigour of the earlier world?”
—William Morris (1834–1896)