53 Caine Road - Forest Lodge ?

Hi Annelisec.  I have to say that it is "possible" this was Forest Lodge.  The problem is that the numbers on the houses changed a couple of times in Caine Road. 

In 1869 Chater definitely lived at No. 17 Caine Road.

Somehow the number changes need to be tracked back to 1869 to know for sure.

Chater was listed as living and working from No. 17 Caine Road between 1873-1892.  After that the numbers began to change, but I haven't been able to prove that the picture you see here as No. 53 was originally No. 17.  It's on my list of things to look up when I'm next in Hong Kong!

I do know that in 1901 No. 35 Caine Road was listed as Forest Lodge, and Dr. Gregory Jordan (Chater's nephew) lived there.

The Numbering of houses in Caine Road changed again in 1903. And they changed yet again in 1934.

If anyone feels the urge to go to the PRO and investigate the house numbering, please let me know!

Liz

Hi Liz,

I've also been wondering about this. How had you thought to track the differences?

I had hoped that the Ladies Directories that Annelise has been kindly typing up would help, as the addresses in those lists show both building names and street numbers. Hopefully we'd be able to follow a house name through the years, watching as its street number changed. However it seems that almost everyone that lived on Caine Road would give their address using a house name, or a number, but not both!

I wonder if that was the problem - that some large houses were initially just known by name and so the numbering skipped over them. Then later there was a rationalisation and every building got a number, so anything already numbered had to be re-numbered?

Regards, David

For what it's worth and if it helps I have some "secondhand" information on Caine Road residents. It was not researched by me but is on my website and was researched by Brian Lewis who was married to one of Charles Warren's grand daughters.

On the website (www.thehongkonglegacy,com) I note the following (the Mrs Olson mentioned in both cases is my great grandmother Ching Ah Fung, wife of my great grandfather John Olson):

 "South China Ladies’ Directory of 1904 which shows a Mrs Olson at 33 Caine Road, a Miss L.Olson (daughter Elizabeth?) and a Mrs C.E. Warren (step-daughter Hannah).

 . . .The South China Ladies’ Directory of 1908 shows Mrs C.E.Warren living at 52 Caine Road together with a Mrs Olson and a Miss Olson. 

Hi David,

Yes it will be difficult but I'm hoping that I will be able to back track, some friends have given me pointers on who to ask and where to go, I just have to plan a trip.  I am always amazed at how much more I achieve when I'm in HK in person, rather than doing things via email, so I'll add it to my list.

Best wishes

Liz

Herostratus has compiled a page showing how the numbers have changed over the years: http://gwulo.com/node/14703

This is not a picture of Forest Lodge but rather a house further along Caine Road to the west. The place for it is here. It was numbered 53 Caine Road between 1903 and 1908.