mystery building | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

mystery building

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Submitted by Unknown user (not verified) on Mon, 2009-05-11 09:50

does anyone know what the little building is that's sandwiched between the government office blocks and the US consulate on lower albert road? Wondering when it was knocked down and why, given it's now a fairly pointless sitting out area

http://hkclweb.hkpl.gov.hk/hkclr2/object?svc=objrtv&src=CM&itemid=ULCPUTMKY@%241K155&pid=1&mime=image/jpeg

 80sKid

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Submitted by Raymond Lo (not verified) on Mon, 2009-05-11 11:09.

The building was the Peak Tram Station.

Submitted by 80sKid (not verified) on Mon, 2009-05-11 11:31.

Hi raymond  - I think you misunderstood. I mean the three story colonial building with a black sloping roof on lower albert road, not on garden road. You can see a car in front of it in the photo. there's no building there today, just a heavily engineered slope with some plants and benches.

Submitted by tngan on Mon, 2009-05-11 11:34.

Hi there,

Are you talking about the one right next to the US Consulate on Lower Albert Road?

Best Regards,

T

Submitted by 80sKid (not verified) on Mon, 2009-05-11 11:37.

hi T, yep that's the one. Just opposite the east wing of the government offices - I figured you or moddsey would probably know

Submitted by tngan on Mon, 2009-05-11 11:55.

Hi there 80sKid,

I guess I'm too young for that.  The photo seems to be taken in the late 1950's or early 1960's and it is very likely older than I am.

Base on the style of the building I guess it was very likely an older Governemt building that dated before both the current Government offices as well as the American Consulate.

Any other ideas folks?

Best Regards,

T

Submitted by 80sKid (not verified) on Mon, 2009-05-11 12:36.

Hi T - sorry forgot to say government website dates the photo from 1964, as far as I remember. Didn't mean to make age-ist comments!

Submitted by tngan on Mon, 2009-05-11 12:47.

Hi 80sKid,

Even if it was dated 1964 I was still much too young to remember any of these details.  I was just a toddler back then.

Best Regards,

T

Submitted by David on Mon, 2009-05-11 16:59.

The 1880 map of the Military Cantonment, Victoria (Plate 3-3, Mapping Hong Kong) shows a building at about that location marked 'Stables'.

On the 1930-45 map (Plate 3-5a, Mapping Hong Kong), there is no title for the building, but from the colour used on the map it was a government building.

It's not clear if the building in the 1964 photo was the same stables building, adapted for another use later, or a completely different building built on about the same spot as the old stables.

MrB

PS, a couple of tips:
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 - if you're using tags to describe something (hurrah!), and you want to use more than one tag, remember to separate them with commas. Otherwise you end up with one massive tag that's unlikely to ever be used again.

Submitted by moddsey on Sun, 2010-03-21 13:49.

I am not sure but I think the mystery building on Lower Albert Road in its previous guise was the Hong Kong Volunteer Headquarters which was built in 1906.

Submitted by annelisec on Sat, 2010-03-27 20:09.

http://gwulo.com/HKVDC-HQ

Here is a photo of the stable.  The path from lower to upper Albert Rd. is still there.

compare to Google streetview http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=hong+kong+lo...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2010-08-11 12:53.

Until its demolition, the building was used by an office of the Public Works Department, I think.

Submitted by 80sKid on Wed, 2010-08-11 13:22.

Thanks Anon. You're right. There's more on the identified building here: http://gwulo.com/node/6075

Submitted by RenoTommy on Wed, 2010-08-11 17:34.

It is amazing that the THEN HK government would allow demolition of a historic building like this.  Is the current HK government better in this respect?

Submitted by Adam on Wed, 2010-08-11 17:57.

The demolition of that building was a very tiny drop in a very large Ocean. The list of fine buildings demolished in HK from the 1960s onwards is endless. The current (Post 97) government is arguably no better, and if it is, then that's just because of the public awareness that has come to the fore in recent years, albeit much too late.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2010-08-11 20:02.

Historic building?  The structure had no architectural merit whatsoever, nor did it have any historic significance.