Cropped from https://gwulo.com/atom/25853 (or actually from the original files from the UK National Archives on Flickr. There are four separate sheets starting here.)
It is amazing what high-resolution photos were made in the 1870's.
I have annotated this photo and identified some buildings. However, I'm not 100% sure, and many buildings are unknown to.
Please give comments and help to identify all (or most) buildings. Herostratus gave as date of the panorama 1879. Hopefully this photo can either confirm the date or suggest another one. I personally think it is older as the Kowloon shore looks pretty untouched. Couldn't find out when reclamation of Marine Lots south of Salisbury Road started, definitely no reclamation was made at the time of the photo.
Here's the list so far:
1 St. John’s Cathedral [1849- ]
2 Pedder Street Clock Tower [1862-1913]
a Hong Kong Cricket Clubhouse (1st location: N) [????-1904]
b City Hall (first generation) [1869-1936]
c Theatre Royal - City Hall [1869-1933]
d Wardley House/HSBC Headquarters Building (1st Generation) [1857-1882]
e 8 & 8A, Des Voeux Road, Central [????-????]
f Bank of East Asia Building (1st Generation), 10 Des Voeux Road [????-1933]
g Powell Building, 12 Des Voeux Road Central [????-????]
h 14 & 14A, Des Voeux Road, Central [????- ]
i Dent & Co. (Centre) / Holiday & Wise / later Melcher's - ML 7 Sec B [1858-c.1904]
j Dent & Co. (West - Praya and Pedder) / Melcher's Building - ML 7 Sec C [1863-1889]
k Duddell's / Hunt & Co. / Jardine, Matheson & Co.- ML 100 [1855-1907]
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u Victoria Hotel
v Victoria Hotel
w
x Arnhold, Karberg and Co. (established 1856)
y
z
A P& O Building 2nd Generation [c.1850-c.1885] (Peninsular &Oriental Steam Navigation Co.)
B
C
D
E
Comments
The picture can be dated from
The picture can be dated from the full panorama pretty accurately. In Wanchai a smoking chimney can be seen. This was part of the Oriental Sugar refinery which only operated for a few years in the late 1870s.
Dating
Thank you Herostratus. This is very convincing.
Obviously, Tsim Sha Tsui was a pretty undeveloped area in the late 1870's. The activities of infrastructure provision concentrated probably more on Yau Ma Tei (west) and Hung Hom (east), and TST development didn't start before the mid-1880's or even later. Actually, it's difficult to find any data from the reports of the Public Works Department because the oldest report I found is for 1889.