Central Government Offices [1848-1955]

These were completed in 1848:

"The collection of four Government buildings shown on the 1845 plan was replaced by one large building, constructed from 1847 to 1848. This was situated to the south of the Heard and Co. building and had its main façade to the west. The foundation stone was laid on 24th February 1847 and was completed the following year at a cost of £14,39327. The building was referred to as the ‘Government Offices, St. John’s Place’ and the departments housed in it included the Colonial Secretary’s Department and the Council Chamber on the first floor and the Public Works Department (PWD) on the ground floor."

page 71 http://www.amo.gov.hk/form/research_CGO_e.pdf

One of the many ideas for "things to do" is to add an automatic then-and-now, or possibly a timeline. So if you look at a location you'll see a timeline of buildings that have been on that spot, and a mini-gallery for each one. Of course that doesn't work if the photos are linked to every version of the building, which is another reason to only link a photo to Places that are visible in the photo.

But as you point out, then we miss the then-and-now comparisons, which we all enjoy seeing. The current gwuloish way to handle this is to edit the place for the current CGO Offices, and fill in its 'Previous place(s) at this location:' with this, older Place.

Then someone looking at this page who wonders what the area looks like now can click the "Later at this location" link that will appear in the right column. That will take them to the current Place and the newer photo. Easier to do than explain!

Or if you see two photos like these from a similar viewpoint, you might just want to highlight the similarity in a comment:

Then:

and Now:

Hopefully that makes sense - but let me know if it doesn't. I know all these extra fields to fill in can seem like too much 'jumping through hoops' when we often just want to post up a photo for others to see. But the extra work pays off in the long term. It builds strong foundations that we can use to make it easier for new visitors to find related information, however they start their visit to Gwulo.com.

Regards, David

According to the website below, this building was used by the Kempeitai (Gendarmes) during the occupation, and many people believed that ghosts (presumably of their victims) could be seen here and at the Supreme Court Building (the main Kempeitai HQ):

http://www.orientalwomentalk.net/Japanese_invasion.html

Moddsey writes:

China Mail 27 August 1954

Workmen unearthed the foundation stone of the original building which had been demolished in 1954. A bronze plaque in florid characters indicated the foundation stone was laid on _?_th day of February, 1847 by Governor Davis with Major Aldrich, Commanding Royal Engineer in attendance.