Pedder Street

I've been going cross-eyed looking at old photos the last week or so, and I've found the 1924 Map a big help.

It is Pedder Street, and we are facing towards the harbour, though the Star Ferry pier was another block east on Ice House Street.

On the left of the street the tall building nearest us is Pedder Building. Next is a short building I don't know yet, and past that is Jardine House with the tower and flag.

On the right the building closest to us is the Hongkong Hotel, then beyond that is the Gloucester Hotel. Across the road at a slight angle is Union Building, and beyond that is the seafront.

The parking sign is interesting too: "Private Cars. Owner Driven."

Probably taken after the Hong Kong Hotel fire and before the construction of Gloucester Building. Note the Pedder Street entrance sign to the Hotel has been removed.

Hi there,

Above the hotel entrance on the side facing the camera, there are two rows of Chinese characters.  Five bigger characters on top and four very small ones beneath them.  The five bigger characters seemed to read "英美唐餐部" from right to left, as Chinese characters were used to be written top down and from the right to the left.

英 = British

美 = American

唐 = Tong (thus Chinese)

餐部 = Catering Department

In this respect it could be loosely translated to " Catering Department handling mostly British, American and Chinese Cuisines".

The four smaller characters could not be read much.  The two characters by the rights seemed to read "天台" but I was unable to read the other two.  "天台" litteraly means the roof. Maybe some cooking or catering activity was available at the roof on demand perhaps?

T

Roof Garden of the Hong Kong Hotel? After refurbishment of the Hotel, a daily service of Chinese tiffin and dinners was inaugurated at the Roof Garden on 1 December 1932. HK Daily Press dated 19 November 1932 refers.