Marble Hall / Admiralty House [1904-1953]

this shot by hedda morrison from 1946/47 shows the missing and damaged rooftop of marble hall -presumably from the fire?

http://via.lib.harvard.edu:80/via/deliver/deepLinkItem?recordId=olvwork348264&componentId=FHCL:1081057

also it looks they've demolished the buildings in the hills above the botanical gardens - which are very lacking in trees because of the wartime need for fuel. the archway at the entrance commemorating the chinese contribution to the war stands out

Hi all,  I have just stumbled upon your website and blog about Marble Hall.  I can probably answer all your questions as I am a distant family member of Sir Catchick Paul Chater and have researched all his own personal properties, including Marble Hall, but a biography I am writing about him.

The plot was purchased by him in October 1899.  He got his friend James Orange, of Leigh and Orange to draw up plans and he started building in 1901.   It totalled 59,100 sq. ft. but he added more land to it as surrounding plots became available.  By 1903 it was almost complete and he had further enhanced the footprint to 62,678 sq ft.  He had moved in by 1904 and was entertaining there and his priceless china collection and art work - The Chater Collection - was displayed there.    In 1921 he started some major renovation and modification work adding onto one side of the house.

Inside, it was exactly as described.  It's entrance was completely marble sourced fom Italy, it was of a beautiful thick green vein marble that you rarely see these days.  I have photos which show the marble staircase - magnificent even by stately home standards here in the UK.

When he died he stipulated that the house and the collection should go to the government.  It is my belief that he thought the government would eventually turn the house into a museum.  He also stipulated that  Lady Chater should continue to live there  for as long as she wished.  She did and died there in 1935.  That is when it was handed to the government.  You are right, in 1946 after the war and its occupation by Japanese officers, it was returned to the admiralty, and tragically it caught fire, an electrical fault.  It stood derlict til the 1950s by which time anything of value, such as the marble had been stripped and it was but a shell.  Now the plot holds government flats called Chater Hall.

Hope this has helped with your interest in Marble Hall.  Please feel free to ask any questions.  By the way, the link that someone posted to show the derelict building is no longer active, so unfortunately I couldn't see to confirm if it was Marble Hall or not.

best wishes

Liz

Hi David,

Thanks for your reply.  I've been actively researching Sir Paul and his life - both personal and professional - for nearly 10 years now.  I have  HUGE amount of information on him but for reasons too numerous to explain here, I am unable to secure a major sponsor to get the biography of him finished.  I have approached all the major companies in HK that he started (that's almost every one of them!), but in the commerical world other things take priority, which is understandable, but frustrating.  So until I can get any kind of sponsor to help further I'm at a standstill so there is no definite time (if ever to be honest) when the biography will be published.

In the meantime, and since you're interested in his house Marble Hall, did you know that he had a a"weekend" bungalow in Kowloon?  It was called Chater's Bungalow, I have pics of that too, it was seriously magnificent.  His dining room EASILY accommodated 150 people when the King of Hawaii was visiting HK and Paul Chater had him over for lunch.  In his grounds he had a tennis court, and I have a lovely photo of members of the Chater/Jordan family sitting on the stones steps that led down to the court all dressed in their finery holding their tennis racquets.  Later on (when he moved into Marble Hall) he rented it out and the tennis courts became a golf course.  The bungalow was adjacent to St. Andrew's church (which he built/paid for) and he gave some of his land from the bungalow to build the vicarage next door.  Amazingly, the vicarage and church still stand.  Everything else he built (which was pretty much all of Hong Kong) has been demolished and new modern buildings are in their places - but you probably know that.

On a day to day basis he lived in a large imposing house in Caine Road.  What I call his town house.  His  brother Joseph and nephew Dr. Gregory Jordan also lived in Caine Road as did Hormusjee Mody (Chater's business partner) where his first house called Buxey Lodge was situated.  Later on Mody bought a house also in Conduit Road (No. 37 just along a bit from Marble Hall) and renovated it and called that Buxey Lodge as well.  So, there were actually 2 Buxey Lodges - bet you didn't know that!

OK. Enough of my rambling!

Best wishes

Liz

Hi David,

Thanks for those links, I shall investigate further.  Part of my research made me look at the history of Statue Square.  Then it became a project [within a project!].  I have now put together a little booklet on the history of Statue Square, all the statues, how and where they were made, who commissioned them, who unveiled them, the purpose, cost, a bit of bio stuff on the sculptors etc.

I then spent 2 years trying to find pictures or photos of each of the statues, which I have now done and I have incorporated a map in the booklet showing all the statues together and where they were positioned.  The rarest picture I had to find [as if they all weren't rare enough to find in the first place] was a pic of the HK and Shanghai Bank War Memorial.  It is a full blown monument with a statue atop, it was a beautifully carved and imposing piece looking directly at the water.

I brought it with me to HK in September [I was there to help unveil the bronze bust of Sir Paul Chater in Chater House, commissioned by HK Land], and showed it to a few people, but I wasn't in town long enough to actually follow thru with anything.  The Statue Square booklet would make quite a good tourist thing I think, and I certainly haven't seen any other book on the history of Statue Square that includes ALL the pictures.

As I say, this was actually part of my research into Sir Paul, but it became a subject of its own.  By the way, Statue Square was Sir Paul's idea - he was very pro British establishment and thought a square dedicated to the royals would be a fitting tribute.  It was called Royal Square briefly during the run up to and around the coronation in 1911, but reverted to its original name over time.

If there's anything else you're interested to hear about, let me know.  I'm happy to share.

best wishes

Liz

Yep that's the one! Have you seen it?

Liz

Clever you!  It was unveiled 24 May 1923 in a double unveiling of the day by Sir R.E. Stubbs.  The Centotaph was the other to be unveiled that day. 

Earlier in the month, on the 3rd May the Sir Henry May statue was unveiled.    Sir Paul Chater paid a wonderful tribute at the unveiling of Sir Henry, (they were VERY close friends) and it appears that once the public subscription had closed (quite substantially less than was required to pay for a statue) he ensured that it was generously topped up and effectively paid for the statue himself.

The extract below is from the HK Daily Press 25 May 1923.

The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank War Memorial, unveiled 24^th May 1923. At the shareholders meeting in February 1916 it was proposed and agreed that a monument should be erected in memory of the Bank staff who lost their lives in the war. Placed in the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank’s garden, next to Queen’s Building and facing the Praya, the memorial was erected by the Bank to perpetuate the memory of those members of staff who fell in the war.   The memorial takes the form of a striking female figure of “fame” standing 8ft high and holding in her hand a wreath.  In front of the figure is a smaller statue, that of a soldier with his kit and rifle.   The figure or “fame” stands on a pedestal of polished Peterhead granite on the front of which is a square bronze panel with the inscription:

In all, 42 people lost their lives and their names were engraved on the monument.  The memorial, erected on the Connaught Road side overlooking the harbour consisted of a figure of Fame in bronze on a granite pedestal and formed a graceful tribute to the many members of the staff who made the supreme sacrifice.   Nearly all the Bank staff were present together with many naval and military officers and a large number of prominent residents.

It is a memorial that is rarely, if ever, mentioned when Statue Square is being described and it is rare indeed to find a picture of it.

Hi Liz - amazing details about Paul Chater and Statue Square. I was wondering about the exact locations of these memorials: this hi-res photo on the government website helps give some context. I don't know what state the plinths etc were after the war, but it looks like the HSBC site was demolished when they developed the new waterfront for City Hall. The walkway entrance next to the Mandarin must have replaced it.

here's one dated c.1930: http://hkclweb.hkpl.gov.hk/hkclr2/object?svc=objrtv&src=CM&itemid=KFAX$N$IRVWNNH09&pid=1&mime=image/jpeg

you can contrast that with this aerial photo taken 1964-65. You can see a fragment of the gardens in front of the Mandarin remains, adjacent to the walkway building:

http://hkclweb.hkpl.gov.hk/hkclr2/object?svc=objrtv&src=CM&itemid=ZKQ6M176U2Z70IYU&pid=1&mime=image/jpeg

you can also see how Jackson's statue had a much more imposing site facing the bank.

I've often wondered the seemingly arbitrary way some statues survived (jackson, the lions, queen victoria) while the others were lost. Have you found any trace of their fate or were the remainder destroyed after being shipped to Japan? Also wondered if any trace of the plinths, including Victoria's cupola, were kept. Seems amazing to think they were just demolished without trace.