Tai Po Kau headland house 1.jpg | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Tai Po Kau headland house 1.jpg

Tai Po Kau headland house 1.jpg
Authors: 

Tai Po Kau headland abandoned house.

Connections: 

Comments

Hi Dylan,

Thanks for these photos.

I don't know that area much at all. Here are the Places we have around there:

http://gwulo.com/map-of-places#15/22.4344/114.1925/Map_by_ESRI-Markers/100

Is any of them? If not, please could you make a new Place for it (http://gwulo.com/node/add/place) to show us the location?

Thanks & regards, David

This house was lived in by Mr. & Mrs de Martin. I think he was in the Education department and no doubt his career is recorded in Govt records. By the time I visited them in the 1950's as a small boy, I cannot recall if he was ill or perhaps had passed away. Living on the next headland we used to visit on a regular basis. The house and garden were beautifully kept and Mrs. de Martin had expert horticultural knowledge. Sadly when she died, which was probably in the early 60's the house was purchased by property developers who ever since have tried to develop the site, which of course would involving destroying many of the rare trees on the site, and despoiling the headland. In the last 10 years the headland has been declared a conservation zone. There is a whole body of work on this for who might be interested.

I have no idea of the legal name, but we always called it de Martin's Point

My mother used to visit Mrs de Martin when she was old and frail, and we children were sent to play in the garden.I remember catching the fish in the pond for which we were told off! It was a beautiful garden so it is sad that it all seesm to have disappeared from the photos. 
However I am glad it is a conservation area!