Red Hill 1 & 2, 358-359 The Peak [c.1898-????] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Red Hill 1 & 2, 358-359 The Peak [c.1898-????]

Current condition: 
Demolished / No longer exists
Date Place completed: 
c.1898-01-01 (Year, Month, Day are approximate)

Photos that show this place

Comments

An old RBL 14 marker stone has survived. Given its low number I guess it's quite old, but how old I wonder?

RBL 14
RBL 14, by gw

The next pic is the view looking down Severn Road from below its junction with Plantation Road. The entrance to the Kirkendoa site is on the left. Further down, on the opposite side, behind the "no entry" sign, an old, low, stone wall borders the road. The RBL 14 marker stone is embedded in the wall.

rbl 14
rbl 14, by gw

  

COMMENCEMENT OF LEASE TERM:17/07/1879 - 150 years.  Lease expires 2029

(The lease for RBL 14 is not on the Land Registry site, but the lot became RBL 589/590 which inherited the lease term.)

The earliest mention of the name "Red Hill" that I can find dates from 1898 (Peak Directory, Jury List). The name of the building previously associated with this site, "Bushy Cottage", was used up to 1890 (Peak Directory). So sometime between 1890 and 1898 "Bushy Cottage" was either renamed "Red Hill" or demolished and replaced by a new building called "Red Hill".  

Further to the last post which was wondering if "Red Hill" was the same building as "Bushy Cottage" merely renamed, or if "Bushy Cottage" was demolished and a new building "Red Hill" constructed, the following photo dated 1897 or 98 shows no building on its site in Plantation Gap - the dip immediately to the left of the distinctive triangular peak of Mount Gough.

View from The Peak, Hong Kong
View from The Peak, Hong Kong, by nnStel

As we know that "Bushy Cottage" stood on its site until at least 1890, and that "Red Hill" was there from at least sometime in 1898 onwards, the absence of any building on the site in 1897/8 indicates that "Bushy Cottage" was demolished and a new building, "Red Hill", completed in 1898. 

Thanks for digging in to this. I'll change the completion date from 1875 to c.1898.