1960s Looking west over HKFC | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

1960s Looking west over HKFC

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1960s Looking west over HKFC
Submitted by David

What: The big building in the foreground is the HKFC's (Hong Kong Football Club) old stadium. Does anyone know which years the stadium opened, and later was demolished?

Where: The photographer is standing to the east of the HKFC. The angle puts him above the stadium, but not so high that he was on top of Leighton Hill. He was probably in an upper floor of one of the government quarters along Wong Nai Chung Road.

Who: There's no-one to be seen in this photo, but this area is connected with a couple of the wartime diaries we've seen.

The curved building on the left of the photo stood on the corner of Queen's Road East and Morrison Hill Road [1].

Building on corner of QRE and Morrison Hill Road

Barbara Anslow lived there in 1941, with her mother and sister. She left it in December 1941 to take up her wartime duties, not realising she wouldn't see it again until 1945. Her diary entry for 9th September 1945 [2] describes what she found:

Went to No. 19 Gap Road, our prewar flat. Stairs in very bad state, no wood on them. No door on our flat, the floors completely bare - and empty. the only recognizable thing was a dead plant lying on verandah, minus pot.

Some of next door's front windows were dangling into our verandah, a bomb must have caught that flat.

In the bedrooms there were odds and ends of broken glass; a few books in Chinese writing, and 2 lampshades one of which we think was ours.  No woodwork of any kind - no partition no cupboard door no lavatory, but the bath was there; the remains of the lav. cistern was lying in our bedroom (Mabel's and mine). Many bricks lying in bathroom.

At the outbreak of war in 1941, Barbara was working in the ARP Heqdquarters building nearby. I guess it might be one of these buildings visible to the right of the stadium:

ARP HQ?

This area is also linked to R E Jones' diary [3]. When he and his family returned to Hong Kong in the 1940s, they lived in government quarters along Wong Nai Chong road.

When: This tall new building is looking just about finished:

Wing Cheung Mansion nearing completion

Here's how this section of road looks today according to Google Streetview:


View Larger Map

The 'new' building is the one in the middle. It's still standing, and Google says it is called Wing Cheung Mansion. Over on Centamap, they shows its occupation date as October 1963. Given that the building is nearly finished in the photo, I'll date the photo to mid-1963.

If you have any memories of this area, I'm interested to hear them. Please could you et us know in the comments below?

Regards, David

References: 

  1. Curved building on corner of Queen's Road East and Morisson Hill Road.
  2. Barbara Anslow's diary for 9th September, 1945.
  3. R E Jones' diary.

Reference: A243B

Date picture taken (may be approximate): 
Saturday, June 1, 1963
Gallery: 
1960s Hong Kong
Connections: 
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Comments

Submitted by C on Sat, 2013-07-20 15:36.

I used to pass by Sports Road almost every day during seven years of my life -- Seven Years on Sports Road...haha.  The original Sports Road was further south than the current one.  The realignment happened as a result of the expansion of the Happy Valley Racecourse.

On the north side of the old Sports Road, the headquarters of the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (the Volunteers) was on the western end of the road, while the HKFC stadium was at the eastern end.  Vehicle traffic was one-way going eastbound.  There were many banyan trees with long roots going from the branches to the ground.  I believe a couple of big ones were moved when Sports Road was realigned.

I believe the Hong Kong Football Club stadium was built in 1954 and demolished around 1995. The book "Along the Sports Road" should provide more exact dates.  At one time, the headquarters of the Hong Kong Football Association was in the stadium.  The stadium was also the site of important football matches, but this was no longer the case by the 1980s.

The RHKR headquarters was quite unremarkable.  After the disbandment of the regiment in 1995, a club house is maintained in one of the Jockey Club buildings.

Wing Cheung Building on Morrison Hill Road was the property of TANG Wing Cheung, MBE (stage name: San Ma Sze Tsang), a well known Cantonese opera performer who did a lot of charity work.  I believe the building has been sold to the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals.

Submitted by CH on Sat, 2013-07-20 16:19.

I confirm the former stadium was torn down in 1995.

It seems it could accomodate more people than the newer one, but I'm not exactly sure of the capacity.

Submitted by tngan on Sat, 2013-07-20 22:29.

Hi there,

The old Sports Road was almost facing Queen's Road East on the west end, and exits to Wong Nei Chung Road very close to the tunnel entrance to the park inside the Race Course.  It used to be lined with big trees.  There are still a few of them left near its former exit.  The nortern boundary of the HKFC stadium would be approximately the present day Sports Road.

The tree as seen in the phot  was likely between the stadiu and Wong Nei Chun Road.  The club kitchen was somewhere under the Stadium along Wong Nei Chung Road.  One might smell dishes from the Indian Continent being prepared there as the aroma of bubbling yogart was everywhere.

The Hong Kong Scounts Association used to have a regional office under the Stadium, on the south west corner on Sports Road.

I once encounter of a Red/Orange coloured big centipede just outside the Stidium along Wong Nei Chung Road.  The crawler came out of the bushes/bamboo from the Stadium and was close to a foot long.  Yikes!!!  Never seen anything bigger than that in City districts.

Best Regards,

T

Submitted by David on Sun, 2013-07-21 04:29.

Thanks for the extra information and stories. I've made a Place for this version of the stadium at:

http://gwulo.com/node/16675

I also received emails from Denis and Peter dating this photo to the 1950s. I'll stick with a 1960s date, and almost definitely 1963 based on the construction of Wing Cheung Mansion.

Regards, David

Submitted by tngan on Sun, 2013-07-21 08:03.

Hi David,

The current site of Wah Yan Colleage at Mount Parish was inaugurated in 1955.  It is clearly visible just above the G watermark.  If the photo was of the 1950's, it would be of the late 1950's.  

As for Wing Cheong building, I googled it in Chinese and got a news clip dated Sep 2009 saying TWGH had been considering to rebuild it in 2012.  Don't know if it is still in their planning.  

Best Regards,

T

Submitted by moddsey on Sun, 2013-07-21 08:22.

According to the Rating and Valuation Department, Wing Cheung Mansion was completed in 1963.

Having said, what I found interesting about your photo was the presence of the former Royal Naval Hospital buidlings as shown here

Submitted by David on Mon, 2013-07-22 00:50.

Thanks for the extra info. I've added them to the "Places shown..." above.

Regards, David

Submitted by David on Tue, 2013-07-23 03:07.

Thanks to reader Mad1941 for this photo of the area in 1965:

A.R.P. SCHOOL AND HEADQUARTERS

I think the ARP school is the U-shaped building, which would make it the lowest building in this photo, just visible over the stadium on the left of the photo:

ARP HQ?

When the 1960s photo was taken, it housed the Harcourt Clinic.

And a bit more on dates. The buiding to the right of Wing Cheung Mansion in the Google Streetview above is 76, Morrison Hill Road, completed in 1965. In this photo the previous building is still standing, putting the photo earlier than that:

Wing Cheung Mansion nearing completion

Regards, David

Submitted by moddsey on Tue, 2013-07-23 05:00.

From HKGRO, the captioned building was completed in March 1940. I believe Harrison Forman had some photos taken in the building from 1940-1941. There is one shot taken from the second floor window looking towards the junction of Morrison Hill Road and Leighton Road as shown here  (click twice for the image to appear.)

1949 Happy Valley (date is approximate as the totalisator is not in picture)

The A.R.P. building would be the wide two story building at the junction of Queen's Road East and Morrison Hill Road.

1940s Happy Valley Racecourse

 

 

Submitted by Gerald Laishley on Thu, 2013-07-25 23:52.

This looks as if it was taken from the top floor of one of the HKG quarters that used to stand along Wongneichong Rd.  They were demolished in the 1960's.

Submitted by raemshaw on Sat, 2013-07-27 22:18.
Hi The government quarters in Wongneichong Road were all 2 storey houses and the photo was taken from higher up. It was possible to access the hillside leading up to Leighton Hill from behind the houses and I suggest that is what the photographer did. We lived in the government houses from the late 40s but I can't remember exactly when the HKFC was built. Rae

Submitted by anonymous-01 on Sun, 2013-07-28 19:12.

Charles Warren and Co bought two lots of land at auction for HK$7100 in 1913. On the second lot it was, according to the South China Morning Post, “the intention of Messrs Warren and Co., Sanitary Engineers, tile makers etc., to build…a modern tile factory, equipped with up-to- date plant, in extension of the factory which they built a few years ago and which has already become inadequate for their business”.

The second lot was at Wongneichong Road overlooking Happy Valley Racecourse, which later became Broadwood Road.

The Broadwood road site became a huge house named The Towers a picture of which is filed in the Gwulo website.

I think it was demolished after the war havng first served as a family home, then as a Japanese officers billet and finally as a girls school.

Probably a useless bit of info but there you are.

Sean

Submitted by moddsey on Sun, 2015-09-06 11:54.

Sunday Herald 3 September 1950

The 'new' stands of the Hong Kong Football Club were completed in September 1950 in time for the start of the soccer season at the end of the same month. 

Submitted by kevchambers17 on Fri, 2019-06-28 13:42.

I’m looking for the old RN married quarters, Eliot House, on Wong Nai Chung Road- because that’s where I was made in 1969!

Submitted by moddsey on Fri, 2019-06-28 23:40.

The RN Married Quarters can be viewed here across the Happy Valley racetrack.