Pedder's Wharf (post-1886) [1886-1894] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Pedder's Wharf (post-1886) [1886-1894]

Primary tabs

Submitted by David on Tue, 2010-09-14 11:21
Current condition: 
Demolished / No longer exists
Date Place completed: 
1886-01-01
Date Place demolished: 
1894-01-01

This was the last and largest of the piers known as Pedder's Wharf. It was  built slightly west from the previous pier, so that it followed the centre-line of Pedder Street.

1890s Hong Kong Hotel

Dates approximate:

  • Completion: The Government Gazette announced a tender for "removal of the old Pedder's Wharf" (Notification 265, 17 July 1886). Also in the newspapers there's a comment that "The new Pedder's Wharf will not be complete until there is a matshed erected on it. Persons making use of it feel the want of some protection badly." (China Mail, 1886-07-22, pg2).
  • Demolition: Moddsey wrote "On 27 June 1894, the temporary timber wharf opposite Ice House St was opened to traffic and the wharf known as Pedder's Wharf was closed."
  • Log in or register to post comments

Photos that show this place

1886
1886
1887
See more photos of this place

Comments

Submitted by Adam on Thu, 2010-11-25 15:06.

Sorry, David, I am not very good at cutting and pasting here from other sources, but I think you'll find an article with the above headline in the October 18, 1929 edition of the HK Telegraph (page 1, col. 1) of some interest .

regards,

Adam

Submitted by annelisec on Fri, 2010-11-26 10:36.

Old Pier buried in the City
Old Pier Buried in the City
Unearthed on site of Hotel Fire
Past Histroy recalled by Discovery

Barnacle-covered.

An Interesting discovery has been made in the course of excavations for the Gloucester building which is to be erected on the old Hongkong Hotel Site.

Workmen recently unrearthed the reamains of what appeared to be a stone wall, which presented a serious obstacle to normal progress.  Enquiries were made and it is now ascertained that the wall forms part of the original Pedder's Pier, at one time the most important wharf in Hongkong.

Submitted by Admin on Fri, 2010-11-26 12:44.

That is a good read - thanks to you both. I like the part where name had been changed in English, but never changed in Chinese. Are there others like that?

Submitted by moddsey on Wed, 2019-06-19 07:52.

An alternative view is presented here of the discovery of the stone masonry. HK Telegraph dated 21 October 1929 refers.

Submitted by moddsey on Wed, 2019-06-19 08:22.

Reference is made to the former Pedder's Wharf on Page 8 of the China Mail dated 28 December 1959. The following is the account:

HK Telegraph 12 February 1886

The first pile of the new Pedder's Wharf was driven at 11.35 o' clock this forenoon, at a distance of  38 feet from the Praya Wall. This pile is of Aranga wood, one foot in breadth and depth and 24 feet long, iron-shod at both ends. 

Three similar piles have been towed over from Tsimshatsui and are ready to be put in place.

From a later account it is shown that the wharf was situated exactly at the foot of Pedder's Street, its centre line coinciding with the centre line of the roadway.

It extended 195 feet out from the Praya Wall, and was 40 feet broad, having six sets of steps down to the water.

Messrs Lane Crawford supplied the Aranga wood of which the wharf was constructed.