History
The street was named after Lieutenant William Pedder the first lieutenant of the Nemesis and the first harbour master of Hong Kong. Pedder Street was established as the centre of Victoria City's commerce in the early colonial days.
The premises of Hong Kong's two most powerful trading hongs at the time, Dent & Co. and Jardine, Matheson & Co., were located on The Praya Central, Victoria City's original waterfront, on the opposite sides of Pedder Street. Dent & Co., one of the key founding members of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, had a huge sprawling complex which stretched along the Praya, and whose west wing abutted Pedder street, suffered financial collapse in 1866. Its demise shook the commercial world in the Far East.
Originally, Pedder Street ran from Pedder's Hill, where the Harbour Master Office was established, south to north ending at Pedder's Wharf on the Praya. The street was extended north by 1904 when the Praya Reclamation Scheme finished transforming the old Praya into the modern day Des Voeux Road, along with a stretch of land north to it up to Connaught Road on which the General Post Office and Union Building were built.
The new pier at the end of Pedder Street was named "Blake Pier" after the city's 13th Governor.
Read more about this topic: Pedder Street
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