Connaught Road lychee delivery. | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Connaught Road lychee delivery.

Connaught Road lychee delivery.
Submitted by Andrew Suddaby
Authors: 
Andrew Suddaby

When I took this photograph I thought that the baskets contained refuse but now I'm not sure.  Any suggestions?  Yes! Thanks to T and David (explanations below) the location can be established as being on Connaught road close to the Macau Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wang.  Several of the buildings on my photograph can be seen to be the same as those on the Street View image supplied by David and, because the wholesale fruit market was there, the baskets would almost certainly have contained lychees as suggested by T.  Thank you for clarifying things.  Andrew

Date picture taken (may be approximate): 
Tuesday, July 21, 1981
Gallery: 
1981 Andrew Suddaby's photos
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Comments

Submitted by tngan on Fri, 2016-01-15 17:10.

Hi there,

There are leaves and branches sticking out of some of the lids.  Lai Chee, perhaps?

T

Submitted by Andrew Suddaby on Fri, 2016-01-15 23:05.

Hi T

There are four lorries loaded with more or less identical baskets - which seems to be rather a lot of lychees, but you might well be correct. The photograph was taken in August so they could well have been in season.  Anyone else any suggestions? I think that in 1981 there were still a few warehouses on that stretch of Connaught road, probably between where the old vehiclular ferry pier and the Blake pier used to be.

Best wishes Andrew

Submitted by tngan on Fri, 2016-01-15 23:26.

Hi Andrew,

I think the photo was taken further west as it capture the tram line.  It would eithere somewhere west of the Macau Ferry Pier, or further west at around Hill Road and beyond.

T

Submitted by Andrew Suddaby on Fri, 2016-01-15 23:56.

Hi T

Yes, you are correct. I didn't think that Judy and I had walked as far as that but we had been exploring some of the streets away from the harbour. We were making our way back to the Star Ferry, so we could very easily have walked as far as you suggest .On the right hand side of the photograph, immediately above the furthest lorry, there is something that looks like a white tower with two dark windows(?) near the top.  I don't recall anything like that on the waterfront.  Any suggestiions?  I don't think it's dirt on the image!

Andrew

Submitted by tngan on Sat, 2016-01-16 00:20.

Hi Andrew,

That structure could be a chimney.  If it was in fact a chimney, there was only one possible location: you have gone beyond the Hill Road/Whitty Street on foot or by other transportation and was on Kennedy Praya with one of the chimneys in the background.

T

Submitted by Andrew Suddaby on Sat, 2016-01-16 01:22.

Hi T

Judy and I have always done a lot of walking on our holidays!  However, my memory is that we caught a tram probably right to theKennedy Town terminus.  There's a photograph of Judy buying some lychees somewhere near there (I labelled it West Point but that is probably incorrect) and then we would have made our way Eastwards through the streets and eventually onto Connaught Road.  I've looked at Google Earth street view and cannot see any sign of any of those chimneys on it.  On my photograph the 'chimney' looks quite small so we could have been quite a bit to the East of the smallest chimney on the photograph you inserted.  Were those three chimneys something to do with ventilation for the MTR or the tunnel under the harbour?

Andrew

Submitted by David on Sat, 2016-01-16 18:54.

This should be the section of Connaught Road just west of the Macau Ferry terminal. Most of the buildings are still standing today:

Regards, David

Submitted by Andrew Suddaby on Sat, 2016-01-16 22:45.

Thanks David and T

That looks promising. Just to the West of the Macau ferry terminal would probably be a better fit with our likely route back to the Star Ferry piers.

Andrew

Submitted by tngan on Sun, 2016-01-17 15:08.

Hi there,

If Lai Chee was concerned, Sheung Wan make sense as there used to be a fruits wholesale market right behindYardley Commercial Building Building as shown in Street View.  The wholesale market was removed to its current location at the water front, next to Wester Harbour corssing tunnel, just across from Hill Road.

T

Submitted by Andrew Suddaby on Sun, 2016-01-17 16:47.

Hi T

I think that you have solved it. Those baskets must have contained something more important than rubbish! In August, Lychees were definitely in season and whatever was in the baskets was being carefully protected.  Looking at Google Earth, Sheung Wang is a very likely location when I think about the photographs taken on the same occasion along the pedestrian walkway beside Connaught Road, that fits with David's thought. Thanks to your detective work, I shall now be able to up-date my description on the photograph.  Best wishes Andrew