Kingsclere / Kingsclere Hotel - Kennedy Road - IL 1381 [c.1901-1924]

I am of the family of E R Belilios whose mansion became the Kingclere hotel. Does the hotel still exist? Who owns it now? On the web site www.kennedyheights.info/history.htm the author says that Mr. E R Belilios had a lease of 999-years commencing 13-Jul-1896. Where can I check whether this lease is still actual? Though I put another email address here for email advices, if you have some useful info can you please copy me through the form on my web site at http://www.easytraining.com/contact.htm? I receive a great deal of contacts so please say that it has to do with the discussion on this web page http://gwulo.com/node/4982 regarding the Kingclere hotel. Who are the owners now? Has it indeed been divided into different buildings? Is the lease owner still E R Belilios ? (his son, R E Belilios had gone to Great Britain to become a lawyer and then he became member of the House of Lords). Thank you for any information you may provide. Claire Belilos, Vancouver, B.C. Canada

"Do you have anything in your family that will confirm if the camel story is true - i.e. that ER commuted on what is now Old Peak Road to The Eyrie on the Peak by camel, and after the Peak Tram was opened the camel became melancholy and committed suicide by jumping off the hillside ?" You ask if I have proof re Mr. E R commuting by camel. Well, it is written right here on the Kennedyheights page, but I had an additional article back in the early eighties from a U.s. Jewish Magazine about E R Belilios saying how following expulsion by the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions our family fled to Venice and Greece (true, I know it from my father). They were a few centuries in Venice where, despite the oppression by the Catholic Church, and Jews being barred from holding any job or opening any business but being forced instead to act as money lenders (I will give you direct reference to a historic book about the Jewish Communities in Venice), and being gated into a Ghetto (I believe the first Jewish Ghetto in europe), they managed to turn Venice into the center of culture in Europe. One of my Belilios ancestors is mentioned in that book of Cecil Roth free for download here Books Cecil Roth at archive.org/details/universallibrary http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Cecil%20Roth%22 The book Jewish Communities in Venice is here for download http://www.archive.org/details/jewishcommunitie008847mbp So in that article in the American Jewish magazine, it said that after that the family went in different geographic areas (e.g. some of them were in Trieste when it was under Austrian rule, some to Syria, etc.) and E R Belilios himself who was a successful businessman heard that the future lay in Hong Kong which was in the beginning of development. He was in Greece at the time. He booked passage for himself and family + a camel (the article said he loved camels and this is why he took one, but now when I read there was no tram or rails I think he must have taken it for his own transportation convenience). The article said that taking a camel aboard a luxury liner caused quite a stir internationally, especially in Europe and that most newspapers carried photos of him and wrote articles about that. When I moved from Montreal to Vancouver every now and then I had to do some paper clearing. I am dead afraid that by mistake I threw that magazine and cannot even remember its name. I had that proof. However, what you say above about the camel becoming melancholy after the Tram became operational, following which the camel committed suicide, I never heard of that - is it a joke? People must have invented this story, although we never know - I do believe in animal intelligence. I saw quite intelligent looks in any cats or dogs I had. This year it is the 120 year anniversary of the Belilios Public School and they wrote to me saying they will have many celebrations and events. I never saw Hong Kong and would love to come but I cannot afford both the flight and the hotels and would want to also tour there, and I would want my daughter to also come. Who knows ? Maybe something will turn up. It is such a long long flight! And everyone else who posted here, thank you so much for your replies. You come across as a very nice bunch of people. Are you all in Hong Kong or different geographic locations? I do have in hand one original letter from E R Belilios (and signed by him) to his cousin, my father's uncle, regarding some trade proposal. His cousin was in Cairo, Egypt, where my father was born and so was I. But we left Egypt as soon as we had our own land back ISRAEL. Despite the facade, it was not so nice in Egypt. Never treated as equals despite the many contributions Jews made to the country, including Maimonides (also originally from Spain and later prominent Rabbi, Philosopher, and Physician) Nice to know you. Doesn't this site send postings or responses to the email I submitted to them? Claire

I omitted to mention something in my above explanation about the Jewish Commmbunities in Venice.   The Church said that it could not itself lend to the poor and impose interest because this was against the teachings of the Bible.  However, the poor or those of lesser means who wanted to buy houses or begin a small business needed loans, so the Church thought that the solution was to make Jews agree to lend to those people and the Jews did so against a small interest.   Despite this explanation, for centuries and centuries, even in the plays of Shakespeare, Jewish people were portrayed as userers though in the book of Cecil Roth you can read how the exhorbitantly high interests were charged by non-Jews and this choked economic development and made life impossible for those of poor means, so the Church every time signed agreements with the Jewish community enabling them to be money-lenders because the Jews charged small interest amounts.  They also later allowed them to trade in "used goods", i.e. second hand clothing and furniture.   The fear was that Jewish people who were known to be good at business would take business away from the established non-Jewish businesses and guilds.  No profession was allowed, e.g. they could not be carpenters or anything.

I myself am just discovering.  There is a very good image at the Library of the University of Washington  http://content.lib.washington.edu  so you can conduct a search on google:  Kingsclere with view of the military hospital, Hong Kong, ca. 1909  Washington University Library

I do not know if they have more pages

"Hong Kong Telegraph", July 24 1897:

"We are informed that the animal belonging to Mr Belilios strayed away from his stable at the Peak yesterday afternoon. A long search during the afternoon prooved fruitless; but this morning the poor animal was found dead about 100 feet below Mountain Lodge, having apparently jumped or fallen from the wall there."

RIP

Annelise: I have been following your fascinating posts regarding the second Kingsclere. Do you have any information on the 1st Kingsclere on Caine Road specifically its street number or its location today? Also any idea as to where the Eyrie (Aerie) was located relative to present day maps? And ER Belilios' office was Lyndhurst Terrace. Do you know what #? And finally, the old court of appeal in HK was also listed one of ERB's offices. Do you have any record of this?

I will be in Hong Kong and India researching the Belilios family and would like to visit these locations. S

Annilisec says the first Kingsclere was at 3 Caine Road. But see "Hong Kong Going and Gone" published by the HKBRAS in 1980 which suggests it was at 61-69 Caine Road.  Any explanation of the discrepancy?

The photo in "Hong Kong Going and Gone" should be easier to check on.  The buildings shown there were, as I recall, on Caine Road near Shelley Street. The house numbers on Caine Road were changed, and 13 would seem to be more likely for to-day's 61-69.

Annelesic: My wife and I will be in HK Sept 6 - 12 and again briefly on 17. We intend to visit all the locations associated with ERB. You are welcome to join us. You can reach me through: www.wakingdragonink.com