29, Lugard Road (2nd generation) [1957- ] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

29, Lugard Road (2nd generation) [1957- ]

Date Place completed: 
1957-01-01

I asked:

Does anyone know if the current building is still the one built in 1922, or has it been re-built since?

And Annelise replied:

I used to live there in the late 60s.  Just a modern concrete box then, so unlikely the original house

Then the Database of Private buildings says it was built in 1957:

https://bmis.buildingmgt.gov.hk/eng/showbuilding.php?id=54690

Photos that show this place

1956
1960

Comments

Yes Anneliese is right - the original (ruined) house was pulled down ca 1957 and a small block of modern apartments built as replacement - we left HK in Feb 1959, unfortunately I can't recall whether the new flats had residents in them; but as kids from 1954 - 59 on Lugard Rd we were told the ruins of 1st gen #29 were haunted by the ghosts of British nurses who had died during the Japanese shelling of The Peak  (incl #29) 

best rgds

Peter Gesner 

29 Lugard Road was a single house. 30 Hirst Mansions were the apartments. I never saw or heard of ghosts during the 4 years we lived there. 

Anneliese - You never heard of ghosts because there weren't any!

The reason our amahs had made up that there were ghosts was to scare us so we would not venture into the ruined bldg that was #29 - it was ,a dangerous; place to play but after the new bldg was finished there was no reason to perpetuate the ghost story ....

best rgds

Peter

 

In September 1967 I became sub-divisional Inspector in charge of WanChai Gap Police Station (now a police museum).  The first crisis I had to deal with was the local policemen's fear of ghosts. In December 1941, when the Japanese invaded HK, there was some fighting around Wan Chai Gap and Coombe Road. Soldiers on both sides died. Chinese people are sometimes affected by such history. So just before I arrived at Wan Chai Gap Station, a constable had been out on patrol at night-time on Middle Gap Road. He saw something walking along the road and fled back to the station in terror - he had seen a ghost. I was left the task of investigating this. I discovered that an English lady living at 8 Middle Gap Road had been out walking in her night clothes, for some fresh air before retiring for the night. However my constables remained terrorised. So I had to send two constables out together on Beat No 1, which comprised Middle Gap, Mt Cameron, Coombe and Magazine Gap Roads. No more ghosts were seen over the next six months I was working at WanChai Gap.