Woodside House, above Quarry Bay [1924- ] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Woodside House, above Quarry Bay [1924- ]

Primary tabs

Submitted by David on Mon, 2009-08-31 15:51
Current condition: 
In use
Date Place completed: 
1924-01-01

The book 'Sustainable development in Hong Kong' gives a brief account of the building's history:

Standing on a hill just outside the border of Tai Tam Country Park, the redbrick, two-storey house was built around 1917 ((actually built in the early 1920s, see comments below)) by the trading house Butterfield and Swire for the families of two middle managers. The company operated the Taikoo sugar refinery and dockyard, which were the main industries around Quarry Bay at that time.

The chapter continues with a description of how the government planned to redevelop (ie demolish) the building in the late 1990's, but eventually backed down after public opposition.

Phil also has a longer description of the building's history, and a surprising discovery in its library. [See Phil's comment below for the updated link.]

  • Log in or register to post comments

Photos that show this place

1924
1925
1934
See more photos of this place

Comments

Submitted by Will on Fri, 2014-08-15 16:51.
Does anyone have a date for when Mt Parker Road was laid out? I have seen reference to it in discussions of the Taikoo ropeway/aerial tram and in the 1896 tourists's guidebook. The guidebook describes it as a path, but it was substantive enough for B&S to build managemet housing there in 1917. Not sure of the date for the garage at Woodside, but even if the road could not support cars in 1917, it seems reasonable that the road would have been rickshaw friendly at the least. As a side note, I was running along Mt Parker Rd this morning an thought I might get a quick answer to my query by inquiring with the staff at repurposed Woodside. After asking, I was reminded why this group is often my first port of call for information. Thanks.

Submitted by David on Sat, 2014-08-16 14:56.

I guess the road would have been built to enable construction of the Sanitarium up at the pass: http://gwulo.com/tai-koo-sanitarium

The best dates we have for its construction so far are the mid-1890s. If anyone can pin down the date, please let us know.

Regards, David

Submitted by David on Thu, 2015-02-26 00:06.

I've changed it from 1917 to 1924 based on these notes from Jennifer Lang:

According to Swire records, it appears that the land on which Woodside was constructed was purchased by Swire at Public Auction  (Quarry Bay Inland Lot No. 13) on January 16 1922 which was purchased for $18,606.25 for a 75-year lease.  The two-story brick house with tile roof was constructed and occupied by June 1924 as Woodside No 1 and 2 sub-managers' houses.

I didn't find any mention of their construction in the PWD Annual Reports.

Submitted by philk on Wed, 2015-10-28 18:45.

I added a new post for Woodside to replace the old one. I noticed that both Geoff and Adrienne have been contributing to gwulo since I wrote the original post so have linked back to a couple of places. Many thanks to both of them for sharing their memories.

http://hongkongandmacaustuff.blogspot.hk/2015/10/woodside-mount-parker-r...

Cheers

Phil