1920s Houses at The Peak

Where: The photographer is standing on Plunkett's Road, looking northwest towards Victoria Peak.

Who: This view made me think of Jean Gittins, and her description of the daily journey from home on The Peak to the Diocesan Girls School in Kowloon, "by rickshaw, Peak tram, ferry and rickshaw again for the last mile along tree-lined Nathan Road on Kowloon side" [1]

The rickshaw to the Peak Tram would have run along the road in the bottom-left corner of the photo, and her view from the rickshaw's seat would have been much like this one.

When: Based on similar photos I've seen, this was taken in the 1920s. As we'll see below, one of the buildings may be able to pin it down to an exact year.

What: Here's what I think we're looking at. (The 1924 Map of The Peak is helpful to identify the buildings.)

The path on the right leads to these two houses, known as the Admiralty Bungalows. As the name suggests, they were quarters for senior members of the Royal Navy.

Down on the left we can see where Plunkett's Road joins the main road - then known as Stubbs Road, now called Peak Road:

The building above the road is Treverbyn, and in the distance behind its chimney we can see Harlech Road running around Victoria Peak.

Looking up from Treverbyn we see this view:

The main building in the centre is the Mount Austin Barracks, a long, L-shaped building. Above the Barracks is a building shrouded with scaffolding, but looking just about finished. I believe it was the block of flats known as 10 & 11, The Peak. Does anyone know their construction date? That will give us a firm date for this photo.

Over to the right, a line of buildings follow Mount Austin Road up the hill:

In the bottom-left corner is the right-hand edge of the Barracks. To its right, and mostly hidden by the rooftop in the foreground, is Edge Hill.

Right again there's a much larger building, the three-storey Ewo Mess ("Ewo" is the Chinese name for Jardines). To the right of the Mess are a couple of temporary matshed huts, built on stilts over the hillside. Any guesses what they were for? Was the Ewo Mess also built around this time, and these were temporary huts for the workmen?

Above the huts is the squat looking Tor Crest, then above that are Meirion on the right, and Bahar Lodge on the left. Keep climbing, following the path up from Bahar Lodge - can you see a thin line reaching into the sky? That was the Signal Station's flagpole. They'd raise flags there to signal the arrival of different companies' ships into the harbour.

Finally, we have the Eyrie and its hilltop lookout:

What's there to see in 2012? Here's a similar view, taken earlier today:

The old open views are difficult to capture now, as there are a lot more trees and bushes blocking the view. We can see the path on the right is still in the same place though, and the small retaining wall (next to the orange litter bin) has survived from the 1920s til now.

Here's a view from higher up Plunkett's Road, where we get a better view of the skyline.

Modern communications have long out-grown the old flagpole. Its electronic descendants now cover all the nearby hilltops.

Fingers crossed I've matched up the buildings correctly. Please leave a comment below if I've made any mistakes, or if you can see anything interesting I've missed.

And if you live up on The Peak and can see a view like this minus the trees and bushes, please could you take a photo for us all to see?

Thanks & regards,

David

Trivia:

This was one of the areas that suffered in 1941, during the fighting against the Japanese. The Mount Austin Barracks were damaged during the battle, found in a ruined condition at the end of the war, and demolished soon after. Numbers 10 & 11, The Peak didn't even last that long. During the fighting they were in the way of the British Artillery, who solved the problem by blowing them up!

References:

1. Pg. 14, Stanley: Behind Barbed Wire, by Jean Gittins.

Reference: EA003