Blake Garden [????- ] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Blake Garden [????- ]

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On 26th June 1914 there was a tender to build a summer house in Blake Garden I wonder if that is the mini pagoda structure seen in many of the later pictures

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Yes, that sounds right. Moddsey has previously noted: "P.W.D. Annual Reports
Ornamental shelters (2) were provided in Blake Gardens in 1914 and 1915.", see http://gwulo.com/comment/29729#comment-29729

I think they're all referring to the same mini pagoda structure in Blake Garden:

Pavilion
Pavilion, by Admin

 

Blake Gardens was also known as West End Park

Please could you let us have some examples?

These two photos, titled West end Park, are actually of Blake Garden. Blake Garden officially got its name 28th October 1904 and was opened the 22nd August 1905 so I wonder if the card maker just made a mistake with the labeling or the park was also known as west end park. At the time the official West End park above Sai Ying Pun was a little used grassy area prone to having builders waster dumped on it. 

West End Park

West End Park, by annelisec

 

Blake Garden looking West

Blake Garden looking West, by Herostratus

I thought West End Park would be where today's Park Road is located. I note in the the Botanic and Forestry Annual Reports that West End Park and Blake Garden had separate entries. 

Originally West End Park (also called Western Gardens in some reports) was the area between Lyttelton and Robinson Road, where Oaklands Avenue is today. Within a couple of years it expanded north across Lyttelton Road (Then Lower Richmond Road) to encompass the entire area South of Park  Road where St Stephens Girls College and the government quarters are today. Subsequently the government reclaimed various bits of it for various building projects. However I see many postcards of Blake Garden labeled 'West End Park. Either the photographer mislabeled them originally or the term is generic and refers to a park in the West end of the city. Below is a picture of the actual West End Park, looking East on Lyttelton, from approximately where Oaklands avenue joins today. 

West End Park Road
West End Park Road, by annelisec

Got it now. Thanks.