in 1835. Downfall In 1866, the collapse of Overend, Gurney and Company, a discount house in Lombard Street, London rocked the financial world. This failure caused a run on many banks which in turn brought down many other businesses and forced Dent's to shut its Hong Kong office in the wake of the affair. Jardine Matheson & Co averted disaster by learning the news sooner – its mail steamer carrying news from Calcutta arrived one hour earlier than others – and emptied its balances at a failing bank before anyone else had heard of the news in Hong Kong. Dent's officially folded in 1867. Its headquarters moved to Shanghai following the collapse in Hong Kong. Premises Dent occupied a building on the corner of Pedder Street and Praya Central (the waterfront), where The Landmark complex is now situated. The first building was constructed in 1850, and was redeveloped in 1864. After Dent collapsed, half of its land on Pedder Street was sold to the newly established Hongkong Hotel Company. The hotel was duly built, and became Hong Kong's first deluxe hotel. The remaining part of the west wing was let out to other trading firms. The hotel expanded northwards, and was later rebuilt into a 6-storey structure, completed in 1893, but the hotel burned down in 1926. The site was acquired by Hongkong Land, and Gloucester Tower constructed in 1932. It was redeveloped into The Landmark in 1979. See also History of Hong Kong List of trading companies References Further reading H. B. Morse, The Chronicle of the East India Company Trading to China, 1635–1834. British Hong Kong Defunct companies of Hong Kong History of foreign trade in China Trading companies 1809 establishments in the British Empire