Jubilee Buildings, Sham Shui Po [1935-1989]

Message from 'wildwood081':

I lived in HK in the early 60's my dad being stationed there till about 1965 with the Royal Engineers. We lived in Jubilee Buildings and i would be intrested to hear from other 'army brats' who lived there also

Hmmmm, I was surprised to see that Shamshuipo was actually on the harbor front at one point if I saw the picture correctly. 

Hi,

   I lived there in the early 60's up till '65. My Dad was in the REME as well.  We lived in no 95 on the third floor facing the soccer pitch. I have many fond memories of the place. I remember a kid called Christopher Taylor and another called Dean. I started school there. I don't remember the first school, but the second one was Gun Club junior school. I remember going on the 'Walla Walla' boats over to Stonecutters Island on a Sunday.. 

I first became familiar with Jubilee Buildings in the mid to late 1970's. They were, by that period, in a dreadful state of affairs and nobody would have wanted to live in them at that time.

The bldgs were later used to house Vietnamese refugees (I believe) in the early 1980's. They also appear in the Canadian documentary "The Valour and the Horror - Captive Christmas."

Ghastly.

Tony Banham's book "We Shall Suffer There" describes in detail the actual location of the site.

It (Shamshiupo) was close to the waterfront, and into the 1970s [and probably right up to the date when British Forces left ahead of 1997] there was a jetty beyond Jubilee Buildings used by craft manned by Chinese (HKMSC) soldiers of the Maritime element of 31 Regiment RCT, HQ of which plus 29 Squadron (Lorries & other vehicles) of the regiment was in Shamshuipo Camp, along with several other Army Units, a large group of well-built permanent single-storey huts occupying the area between Laichikok Road & Cheungshawan Road.

The name of the Vietnamese refugee camp that used these buildings between 1979 and 1981 was the Jubilee Transit Centre. 

The people behind Post 41 at The Heritage of Mei Ho House produced an issue covering the use of the buildings as a refugee transit centre in the late 70s. It includes various personal stories, photos and location. You can view it online here: https://www.yha.org.hk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/HMHH_Post-41_03.pdf 

Have posted 3 photographs of a childrens party held outside Jubilee Buildings.

That must be it IMHO.  1935 being the year of King George V's silver jubilee, and it's also unlikely at that time for there to be another large development of "European houses" in the area.

I lived in Jubilee in 1968 and it was only a road's width from the sea, when there was a heavy sea it splahed on our ground floor flat windows and at the Southern end there was a ramp where LTSs used to Berth, I remember LST Lancelot and Bedivere being there at different times.

we had the misfortune to be allocated married quarters here back in 1968. What a dump, infested with cockroaches , right on the docks, bars on the window, (we were on the ground floor) not a good introduction to Army married accomodation. Fortunately we were soon moved to some lovely new quarters in Kowloon Tsai, we were in Durham Court, the railway ran alongside and we were right on the flightpath to Kai Tak but I loved it.

Sounds as though we must have beeen there about the same time, My husband was in the Lancashire fusiliers. Our son was also born at BMH in the August of '68

Hi Steve,

Do you happen to know Peter, Linda and Jenny Dunnet (Dunnett?) as well as William Sargent at Gun Club around 1960 - 62?

David

The date of demolition of the jubilee buildings should be 1990.
Jubilee buildings became a refugee camp in 1979 for vietnamese boat people.
The were newspaper articles reporting incidents inside the refugee camp like fightings etc up
til 1989. It is not correct to say the camp lasted only from 1979 to 1981.

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The camp still existed on a map in 1987.

1987-03_jubilee_buildings_map.png, by simtang

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In 1989-5, there was a plan to rebuild the site.

1989-05-13_ssp_refugee_camp_to_be_rebuilt.png, by simtang

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In a 1990-5 map, the jubilee buildings disappeared and the site labelled as "works in progress"

1990-05_jubilee_buildings_map.png, by simtang

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"It is not correct to say the camp lasted only from 1979 to 1981"

These dates refer to its role purely as a transit centre i.e a holding place those people who had already been accepted by a foreign country. It may have remained a camp afterwards but this was not in the form of the "Jubilee Transit Centre" which had a more specific function.

The Govt aerial images show that the buildings had been demolished as early as August 1989, so i think 1989 can probably be entered as the demolition year.

 

block of twenty-four European houses at Shamshuipo built  in 1935. It is not clear if they are the Jubilee buildings. Other sources seem to indicate the barracks and Jubilee buildings were completed in 1927.

https://www.master-insight.com/深水埗公園的前生事跡/

This is a 1928  picture showing the barracks and Jubilee buildings:

1928_sham_shui_po_barracks_and_jubilee_buildings.png, by simtang

https://mmis.hkpl.gov.hk/coverpage/-/coverpage/view?_coverpage_WAR_mmisp...

Unaware of the connection to the Hotung family but in Barbara- Sue White's book  "Turbans and Traders: Hong Kong Indian Communities" it mentions "The Jubilee Buildings in Sham Shui Po were commissioned by the Ruttonjees before World War II, leased to the British, then sold to the government after the war......"

Don't have access to the book or HKPL at the moment, so not able to track this one down. 

1927

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Sham shui po camps before the jubilee buildings appeared

1927_sham_shui_po_camps.png, by simtang

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1950s

Sham shui po camps with the jubilee buildings

1950s_sham_shui_po_camps_and_jubilee_buildings.png, by simtang

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The reference to an "Indian speculator" and Sir Thomas Hotung (?) appear in Charles G. Roland's book "Long Night's Journey Into Day" here

So far no primary sources of information for the Jubilee Buildings prior to 1935. For now, looks like 1935 as the year of completion.