Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

c.1900 View of beached sampans along the Yau Ma Tei shoreline

David — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Where: Local historian Cheng Po-Hung has a very similar photo in his book "Early Hong Kong Kowloon's Peninsula". He describes it as:

Boats in front of Reclamation Street and boat people gathered along Sixth Street (Jordan Road).

That certainly sounds to be the right part of town, unless anyone disagrees with the ridgeline in the distance:

But I don't think he's got the names of the roads quite right.

Here's a map of the area in 1887 [1].

I think we're either looking at:

A. The view from Sixth Street (today's Jordan Road), across to Canton Road in front of Battery Street, or
B. The view from the end of Battery Street, looking across to Reclamation Street.

Looking at the 'ridgeline' photo again, there is an open area between the two terraces of buildings, with a tree growing there. Does anyone recognise the location? Other clues are that the shophouses in the foreground are only two storeys high, but the buildings behind them look to be three storeys high. Maybe the foreground buildings are older?

Who: The title under the photo reads -

134. Characteristic groups on the shore at Kowloon. China.

I wondered if the people were posed for this photo, but I don't so. The photo in Cheng Po-Hung's book mentioned above shows the same boats and background, but different people. The photographer must have set up his camera and taken several photos over an extended period, waiting until people got used to him.

So some of the people are keeping an eye on the photographer, but if we take this group of children as an example, most are ignoring him:

The children and the ladies near them belong on the boats, with bare feet and plain, dark-coloured clothes. The men on the right look as though they are from a different "Characteristic group", wearing shoes and smarter clothes. The shorter man's white socks certainly suggest he doesn't spend time doing manual work.

When: The card has "Copyright 1902 by C. H. Graves." stamped on it. I'm guessing that the photo was taken a few years earlier than that, but I'm not 100% sure. The "C. H. Graves" was Carlton Harlow Graves, a photographer and publisher of Stereoview cards like this one.

Does anyone know when C. H. Graves visited Hong Kong?

What: A jumble of boats along the shoreline. These were homes too, so you see all the odds and ends they'd need for daily life:

As always, comments, corrections, and extra information welcome.

Regards, David

References:

Plate 4-2 (1887) Plan of Kowloon, from the Mapping Hong Kong book.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos):

1900

Reference:

A218

c.1920 Des Voeux Road, Central

David — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:21:09 +0000

Where: This is the same stretch of road we saw in the previous photo, but looking in the opposite direction. Here's the previous photo again, looking east along Des Voeux Road from Pedder Street:

In this week's photo we're looking west from the junction with Ice House Street.

When: In the previous photo I struggled to find anything that gave a firm date, but here the tram's roof helps us out.

Canvas roofs like this one were in use from 1913 on. In 1925, the fully enclosed upper-deck was introduced, though it took a few years to convert all the trams [1]. So I'll guess this photo was taken somewhere between those dates, around 1920.

Who: The couple of gentlemen in the foreground look to be waiting for the tram to stop and let them on.

Maybe they're heading to Causeway Bay, the destination shown on the tram's sign. They also had the option to take one of the rickshaws or sedan chairs we can see in the background, but the tram was a lot faster over longer distances.

What: This stretch of road started and ended with a hotel. The closest building on the right was the King Edward Hotel, on the corner of Ice House Street.

Next to it was the Alexandra Buildings, and beyond that the striped building was the General Post Office, the GPO. (I think the photographer must have taken the previous photo from upstairs in the GPO building.)

The buildings on the left are five of the six buildings between Ice House Street and Pedder Street.

The tallest building in the distance is the six-storey North Wing of the Hong Kong Hotel, finished in 1892. I guess that the shorter buildings we can see are all older than that, since it would be unusual in Hong Kong to demolish a building and not build the new one as tall as possible!

Here's the 1911 map [2] again, showing this area (note that south is at the top):

If you know any more about those older buildings, eg when they were built and by who, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks & regards, David

Trivia:

This postcard was published by "K.M. & CO. HONGKONG".

References:

Tram generations.
Plate 3-4, Mapping Hong Kong book.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos):

1920

Reference:

NA009

Pillboxes on the mainland

David — Sun, 05 May 2013 12:31:28 +0000

Thanks to Rob Weir for the latest instalment from his records of British military sites in Hong Kong. Here's a map of their locations:

[Each red marker shows one pillbox. Click any marker to see its name. Click the name for more details, and to see if we have any photos of that pillbox.

Subscribers - if you can't see the map, please click here to view the web version of this page.]

Rob explains their background:

These pillboxes (PBs) were positioned to protect against attacks from the north through the passes and tracks in the Kowloon hills, as well as sites of possible amphibious landings. They ran in a line across the Kowloon Peninsula from the Texaco Peninsula (Kwai Chung), to Hung Hau on the Clearwater Bay Peninsula.

Construction commenced in 1935 and was completed in 1938.

Their size and shape varied with the number of firing loopholes, and local conditions, and with only one known exception (PB 119), all had 3 feet (91 cm) thick reinforced concrete walls and roof. Firing loopholes were protected by outward opening steel doors, and a steel door closed the entrance. Interior ventilation was through air shafts protruding above the roof, to internal ducts in some walls.

Many of the hillside PBs had long access tunnels to the entrance, and some were linked together by tunnels (indicated by a/b). PBs and tunnels were usually built in excavations in the hill, then covered with earth so only the loopholes and air shafts were visible. Those on flat ground did not have the tunnels, and were painted to resemble village houses.

Post war, the majority were either explosively demolished, leaving only piles of rubble, or removed entirely during New Town development. As of 2013, only three are known to survive largely intact: PB 313, 314, & 315.

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Rob's conventions in each pillbox's notes:

Names are those used at the time the pillbox was in use, and may vary from current naming eg. Lye Mun > Lye Yue Mun
"Year completed is:". Approximate means 'around that time'. Accurate means the year is accurate, but month & date are not.
"Condition at last visit:". Intact - it is still in the condition it was when used. Ruin - still visible, but damaged. Demolished - no traces remain.
"Date of last visit:" eg Jul-1998. When Rob last visited the site to check its condition.
"Ref:" Rob's reference number for this site.
"Other:" Anything else useful to know.

The layout of the pillboxes on the map shows a couple of other pieces of history.

First, they let us see the extent of the "Gin Drinkers Line". It consisted of trenches and pillboxes, built to defend against attack from the north. Looking at the map we can see it was made up of several defensive lines, rather than the single line the name suggests.

Second, we can see how much reclamation has taken place since the 1930s. Originally, the western pillboxes ran along the shoreline of Gin Drinkers Bay, which gave its name to the Line. The bay has long since been filled in.

Finally, if you look carefully you'll note several numbers are missing from the sequence of pillboxes: PBs 210, 211, 304, 305, 409, 410, 414, 422, 423, and 424. These are pillboxes that Rob doesn't feel confident he knows their location accurately, so they have not been shown on the map.

Regards, David

c.1915 Des Voeux Road, Central

David — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Where: As the postcard says, this is Des Voeux Road in Central. We're looking east from the junction with Pedder Street.

What: We can see the name of the building on the left, Alexandra Buildings:

It also shows a couple of company names: A. S. Watson along the bottom, and The China Mutual Life Insurance Co. in the window. Watsons the Chemist is still a well-known brand in Hong Kong, but it looks as though China Mutual was swallowed up by Sun Life in 1923 [1].

The tall building on the right of the postcard is the Hong Kong Hotel. Next to it is a row of three-storey buildings, running along Des Voeux Road to the junction with Ice House Street. Here's a map of the area from 1911 [2] (note that south is at the top);

Can you tell us anything about those five three-storey buildings, eg their names and when they were built? They used to be the grand seafront buildings along the praya, but after the big reclamation in the 1890s they've been overshadowed by these newer, taller buildings.

When: The photographer is up off the ground, probably looking out from a first- or second-floor window of the GPO (General Post Office) building. The GPO wasn't completed until 1911, so the date should be after that.

I've guessed this photo was taken in 1915, but can you spot anything that dates it more accurately? Please let us know.

Who: Plenty of people waiting to give you a ride in their sedan chair or rickshaw. And one gentleman taking his chair for a walk:

Regards, David

References:

The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), 27 July 1923, Page 12
Plate 3-4, Mapping Hong Kong book.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos):

1915

Places shown in this photo:

Hongkong Hotel, North Wing

Alexandra Building (1st generation)

Reference:

NA008

c.1920 Statue Square & Prince's Building

David — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Where: As the postcard says, we're looking across Statue Square towards the original Prince's Building (the building on the left).

Who: The only living person in the photo is outnumbered by the statues that gave the square its name.

Over on the left is the grand cupola that was in the centre of the square, and housed a statue of Queen Victoria [1]. The cupola is long gone but you can still see the statue, now living in Victoria Park [2].

Another statue is this one of King Edward VII, standing on a simpler plinth:

When: We know the King Edward VII statue was unveiled in 1907, so the photo was taken after that.

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Another clue is the faint, white line running along the hillside at the top-left corner of the picture:

That's Lugard Road, and it's the only structure from this photo that's still standing today. The road was built in two phases [3]. The first part was built in 1913-14, running from near the Peak Tram Terminus to just past the Bishop's Lodge. The section in the photo above was part of that, so the photo should be later than 1914.

The second phase took place during 1919-21. It extended the road to the junction with Harlech Road, completing the circuit around the Peak. Was that already finished when this photo was taken?

If you look up from the King Edward statue there's a white line at the very top of the picture. That could possibly be part of the road's second phase, but it's not clear enough to be sure.

Down from the Peak there's this cluster of buildings in mid-levels:

Do any of them help date the photo?

The last clue I can see is what's missing. In 1923 the HSBC's war memorial (a statue of 'Fame' [4]), and a statue of Sir Henry May were added to the square. We'd be able to see them from this viewpoint, so I believe the photo was taken before 1923.

I'll guess 1920 as the year this photo was taken, but please leave a comment below if you see any other evidence for or against.

What: Down in the right corner, there's what look like a stack of barrels and some sort of wagon:

Any ideas what they were used for?

Regards, David

Trivia: The original photos were black & white, but when printed as postcards they had several colours added to liven them up. Nothing fancy - just a few colours to choose from, and not always painted on very accurately:

The underlying photo is still clear to see though.

When I scan this type of postcard there's not as much detail available as there is with a photograph. But there is a lot more detail than we can get from a modern colour postcard. With a modern postcard, the coloured dots are visible at even a low level of zoom.

Does anyone know how these old postcards were printed, so they kept the detail?

References:

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos):

1920

Places shown in this photo:

Statue Square, Central

Prince's Building (1st generation)

Reference:

NA002