Peak Club [1902-1941]
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Submitted by annelisec on Thu, 2009-12-31 22:25
Current condition:
Demolished / No longer exists
Date Place completed:
1902-01-01
Date Place demolished:
1941-01-01
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1913 - Peak Club by JOHN STUART THOMSON
Re: Peak Club by John Stuart Thomson
An aside. I had known that the initial construction of Harlech Rd in 1900 was done with the assistance of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. But I had never known why the road was named Harlech that is up till now!
Mount Austin Military Band late 1890s. Is that High West in the background?
Re: Peak Club
This photo was taken in September 1945 showing the derelict state of the building after WWII.
Update to link: http://images.google.com/hosted/life/815d4095e8870923.html
"The Chinese" - 1909 - by John Stuart Thomsom
An Englishman (few as there are in the East as compared with the Scotch), brings all his sporting and club impedimenta to the Orient. In a little vale at Hong Kong, between Mts. Kellett and Gough, sixteen hundred feet above the water, they have placed a bungalow club, which has a marvelous view of peaks, seas and land- locked bays. There is nothing like this view at those other famous oriental mountain retreats from the heat, such as Simla, Darjeeling and Namhan.
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Remains of the Peak Club
Looking at the photo from Life showing the war damaged Peak Club, you can see part of the foundation of which it was built upon has been retained in today's Peak School. The bands of white on a granite base make it very recognisable upon which the present staff room (and in my days of going to the school, an underused kitchen area) is built upon. This is the side that you see when going up Plunkett's Road and I have always wondered why that particular part of the school looked so much older than the rest, now I know its been there twice as long.
After the war - Peak Club becomes Peak School
The Peak Club was started by Thomas Jackson, of HSBC, but was open to anyone, not just HSBC staff.
After the war:
Despite the obvious need for a new and larger facility, the move to Plunketts Road was a long and arduous process, led by Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp., obviously anxious to place the children of employees. The first offer of the HSBC Club House site for a new school was made in 1948 by the bank and turned down by the Department of Education, which felt the old school was adequate. At the time, there was an urgent need for Chinese schools, with over 30,000 local students entirely without any access to education. There was concern within the government about the appearance of investing in a new school for a privileged area. Finally, in late 1951, in an effort spearheaded by a particularly tenacious HSBC employee, A.S. Adamson, the bank offered not only to donate the club house land but also to put together a consortium of British companies to build the new school. In all, these companies raised HK$835,000 to build the new Peak School, which upon completion was taken over by the colonial government.
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Early days, and bits and bobs
Sir Thomas Jackson, then Chief Manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, was behind the establishment of the Peak Club and served as its president for 9 years until his retirement in 1902.
The Club began in temporary accommodation in 1893.
Much to the chagrin of senior Government officials who looked forward to having a retreat on the Peak during the hot summers, the Peak Club leased the Government Pavilions on Mt. Kellett for three years 1897 in a private deal with the Governmor, and the Club then began negoitation in 1898 with Government for lot # 62, where the Peak School now stands, adjacent to Mr. Jackson's home, Creggan.
(Chronicle and Directory for China ... 1906)
On a more prosaic note, precious water to be used simply for urinals for the Peak Club was considered sufficiently noteworthy to be reported in 1913 in the newspaper.
A Photo of a tennis party at the Peak Club c.1921 is in the Public Records Office.
The Peak Club was liquidated in 1951.
The Peak Aerodrome
IDJ has sent in an interesting summary of the club from 1908:
He also mentioned an interesting, though unlikely, story of a plane landing on its lawns:
When compiling the book Wings Over Hong Kong we acquired journal notes written by the first aviator Van Den Born to fly in Hong Kong at Shatin in 1911. These were in French and the translation described him flying up to the Peak Club for lunch by landing on the lawns.
I've always been very sceptical about this flight as nothing is mentioned in the Press where it would be regarded as a bigger event than the flight at Shatin.
The date on this post seems
The date on this post seems to have been updated and not in date sort order