HSBC lions

Various headquarters and branch buildings of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (and later the HSBC Group) feature a pair of lion sculptures.

The HSBC lions have become distinctive landmarks in their own right in Hong Kong and Shanghai, with further pairs to be found in London and Birmingham.

Chief Manager Alexander Stephen wrote, in 1921, that the inspiration for his decision to order their sculpting came from the imposing lions outside the Venetian Arsenal.

[2] When HSBC decided to build its third Headquarters at 1 Queen's Road Central in Hong Kong, opened in 1935, it commissioned two bronze lions from Shanghai-based British sculptor WW Wagstaff.

Chou Yin Hsiang himself came to Hong Kong in 1935, and by 1977 was the proprietor of Jeh Hsing Metal Works – and still casting bronze for HSBC.

[2] Their 4-year sojourn in the annexe and Statue Square aside, the lions have only left their positions as guardians of the Des Voeux Road entrance of the Bank once: they were confiscated by the Japanese and sent to Japan to be melted down.

The casting was completed at Bronze Age Foundry in nearby Limehouse, directed by Zambian-born New Zealand sculptor Mark Kennedy.

However, Kennedy was asked not to reproduce the "war wounds" of the Hong Kong lions in the copies: they had to earn their own battle scars.

In 2016, HSBC installed two rainbow-painted replicas of the lions at its Hong Kong headquarters in Queen's Road Central, in recognition of LGBT rights.