A sugar refinery named Union House was from 1771 to 1811 located in a now demolished warehouse adjacent to the building by a group of British merchants and plantation owners from St. Croix in the Danish West Indies.

The narrow tract of land on the north side of Bådsmandsstræde was in the beginning of the 18th century the site of a lumberyard owned by Niels Alsing.

He instantly sold part of the garden (closest to Christianshavn Caal) to ship builder Ole Gad.

[2] Chippendale's company traded on the Danish West Indies with its own fleet of merchant ships.

Chippendale developed a good relationship to a number of Irish and English plantation owners on St. Croix.

Robert Tuite and Charles August Selby, his son and nephew, were in return secured positions in the enterprise.

This happened on the same day that he purchased the Prince William Mansion on Sankt Annæ Plads in the fashionable Frederiksstaden.