On December of the same year, British diplomat Frederick Bruce forced the governor of Zhili province to demarcate the future concession in accordance with the Peking stipulations.

The British concession was opened on December 17, 1860, with an initial area of about 460 mu (approximately 28.26 hectares), located on the west bank of the Hai river in former Zhizulin village 紫竹林村.

[2] A number of foreign firms were soon built in the concession, including consulates of Britain, Prussia, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, etc., as well as billiard rooms, basketball courts, clubs, and other entertainment facilities.

In order to promote the development of trade, the British concession authorities committed to build more wharfs and port facilities.

The concession expanded yet again, this time west of the Qiangzi River, and acquired an additional 3928 acres of land in the British Extra Rural Extension.

The British concession looked especially favorable for invasion: it held considerable amounts of Chinese governmental silver reserves, and at the same time was prone to anti-Japanese activity carried out by the nascent Kuomintang.

On April 9, 1939, famed pro-Japanese activist Cheng Xigeng was assassinated in the Grand Cinema, Shanghai, by a sniper.

Four suspects were arrested in the British concession linked to Xigeng's assassination, and consequently, the Japanese authorities requested that the four people be handed over to Japan.

[10] British Prime Minister Chamberlain hinted in the House of Commons that unless Japan lifts the blockade, the United Kingdom may resort to economic retaliation.

[11] On the 15th, the British Chambers of Commerce submitted several proposals to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on economic sanctions against Japan, the most important of which was the abolition of the 1911 Anglo-Japanese Treaty.

Under the leadership of the new Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Britain switched sides and became more committed to compromise with Japan and resolve the Tianjin crisis as soon as possible.

[12] On December 8, 1941, at the breakout of the Pacific War, Japanese troops once again invaded and became stationed in the British concession; this time, there were no agreements to be made.

On February 18, 1942, Japan announced the transfer of the Tianjin British Concession to the Wang Jingwei regime, a Chinese puppet government, and a handover ceremony was held on March 29.

After the Japanese surrender to the Allied powers in 1945, the Chinese Nationalists announced the formal absorption of the British concession.

The Bureau had multiple custody groups, branch offices, and municipal committees that governed various aspects of life within the British concession.

[16] The infrastructure initiated by the concession solved the basic problems of urban production and life such as centralized water supply and power supply, roads and bridges, public transportation, commercial and residential buildings, and provided a suitable investment environment for both Chinese and foreign capital.

[6] In the early days of its establishment, the British Concession of Tianjin opened factories that were wholly foreign-owned and did not have the nature of independent industrial enterprises.

[1] Chinese-owned industries in the concession appeared in the late 1870s, mostly built and funded by Chinese bureaucrats who were inspired by the Self-Strengthening Movement, including flour making, machine repair, weaving, carpetmaking, wool spinning, etc.

Among them, the two foreign firms, Jardine and Taikoo of the British merchants, monopolized the shipping business in Tianjin and set up special docks and warehouses in the dam of the concession.

[6] From the 1920s to the early 1930s, with the gradual improvement of the concession infrastructure, and at the same time, in order to avoid the war and seek asylum, Chinese businessmen, entrepreneurs, politicians, etc.

The promotion sector in the concession became a high-end residential area, attracting all sorts of celebrities and important figures.

In 1927, under the advocacy of Zhuang Lefeng, director of the British Tianjin Chinese Taxation Association, the city used 18% of the Chinese tax payment to establish Tianjin Yaohua High School (天津市耀华中学) in the concession and hired Beiyang University Supervisor Wang Longguang as the principal.

[17] In the following year, due to the increasing number of students, Zhuang Lefeng submitted a request for land expansion to the Tianjin British Municipal Council.

The concession authorities commissioned Gibb, Livingston & Co. to raise 250,000 yuan to build a small power plant in the Huangjia Garden area.

[1] By the outbreak of the Pacific War, however, no British or American nationals were living in the concession for fear of being sent to the Weixian Internment Camp.

Notable people who had lived in the concession included Eric Liddell, Herbert Hoover, Wellington Koo, Sun Chuanfang, Cao Kun, Yan Huiqing, and more.

[1] One of the most notable policies of the concession when expanding was to ban brothels, gambling halls, and other institutions that were "inconsistent with ethics".

[29] The British concession had strict regulations regarding environmental sanitation and garbage disposal, prohibiting the dumping of waste or dirty soil in the streets.

In accordance with stipulations from the Tianjin British Municipal Council, all residents must have had a tested and well-performing septic tank and sewage pipes.

[1] Later, concession authorities decided to stop using fecal trucks, and the householders and lot owners had to build new sanitary toilet equipment for septic tanks in accordance with the new regulations.