Standing at No 27 on the Bund is the former headquarters of early opium traders Jardine Matheson, which went on to become one of the most powerful trading houses in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Also known as EWO, it was the first foreign company to erect a building on the Bund in 1851. It later invested in China’s earliest railways and cotton mills, and even operated a popular brewery. The current building replaced the original and was completed in 1922 in British Renaissance style.
In 1941 the British Embassy occupied the top floor, facing the German Embassy across the road in the Glen Line building, at No 28. Jardine Matheson now holds the House of Roosevelt, which is quite possibly China’s largest wine cellar and bar.
