1940s Middle Bay | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

1940s Middle Bay

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1940s Middle Bay
Submitted by Admin
Tags: 
swimming

Photo courtesy of Geoffrey

Date picture taken (may be approximate): 
Monday, January 1, 1940
Gallery: 
1940s Geoffrey's photos
Connections: 
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Comments

Submitted by T (not verified) on Tue, 2007-10-02 04:27.
Hi there, At the back there was a big white building with a tower. That looked very much like the Lido (麗都) to me, some hostel like facilities for swimmers it was. I am uncertain whether it is still there today. I have not been to the Repulse Bay since 2005. It was still there back in 2005 though. T

Submitted by moddsey (not verified) on Tue, 2007-10-02 21:51.
Looks like the hills in this photo http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Repulse_Bay_Beach_with_hillside.jpg matches with the old photograph. The photographer would have been standing on South Bay Beach looking toward Repulse Bay.

Submitted by Sentinel (not verified) on Wed, 2007-10-03 10:10.
Ah that's not South Bay, which is a much deeper bay, it's Middle Bay Beach, famous among gentlemen of the posing pouch persuasion. You can still see the foundations of all those buildings there - and I'd often wondered what they looked like. It's got the best beachside cafe, poseurs notwithstanding. Middle Bay is the small beach show just north on yr map to South Bay. Pics here: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/16fda/

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2007-10-03 10:22.
also the Lido has been knocked down - the Emperor Group are redeveloping it. repulse bay may finally get a decent bar ``The team was appointed by Emperor Group as the retail consultant and sole leasing agent of the Lido redevelopment project in Repulse Bay. It is a unique beach-side retail development of approximately 150,000 sq. ft. gross, in the most fascinating tourist destination, Repulse Bay. The opening is tentatively scheduled for the first quarter of 2008.''

Submitted by T (not verified) on Wed, 2007-10-03 10:47.
Hi there, I would like to point out, if it was the Middle Bay, you should have over 90% of the Repulse Bay Beach in site. The photo showed the Repulse Bay was obscured by a headland and it matched the one between Middle & South Bays. T

Submitted by T (not verified) on Wed, 2007-10-03 10:49.
type, site = sight. :-P

Submitted by Sentinel (not verified) on Wed, 2007-10-03 11:13.
I have to disagree. The Lido is on the far right of repulse bay, next to the temple. To the left of the photo you'd see the whole of repulse bay. The headland abutting South Bay is much longer and obscures all of Repulse Bay. The foundations of the beach huts shown are still there. Take a look at the middle bay beach photo shown here: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/16fda/. It's from the same end of the beach but taken closer to the road, so the headland covers more of repulse bay. You can see the same path winding round the coast to the huts, as well as the steps heading up.

Submitted by moddsey (not verified) on Sat, 2007-10-06 17:09.
I stand corrected. The photographer was indeed standing on Middle Bay Beach looking at Repulse Bay in the distance. I will submit a now and then photo for reference later.

Submitted by Admin on Mon, 2007-10-08 14:30.

Here are the photos Moddsey promised. First a present-day shot taken at Middle Bay, replicating the view shown above:

Middle Bay

Then another shot of Repulse Bay from the 1950s.

1950s Repulse Bay

He notes:

The old photo postcard of Repulse Bay is from the 1950s. The beach huts on Middle Bay Beach can be seen. The white building with the tower left of centre, I assume is the Lido. This would appear to be the same building in the 1940s photo just to the left of the headland.
 
Came across this 1941 snippet of the Lido from the Memoirs of Col. P H. Munro-Faure:

Hongkong was very quiet, a state of affairs not to be attributed to an entire absence of females. It was remarkable how many had succeeded in avoiding the order to leave the Colony. I had to wait a whole week for a passage to Singapore, where formerly berths on a dozen different ships would have been offered in the time. This gave me an opportunity to look around.

Friends took me out to Deep Water Bay, where we sunbathed on the beach, and drank our tea on the club verandah, looking out over the little golf course. High up on the hill towards Wong Nei Chong Gap I could seen the green tiled roof of the house where my wife and I, only three years previously, had been caught in the rain. I wondered whether the lady of the mansion was one of those who had contrived to remain behind.

In the evening we drove round to the next bay and bathed from the Lido, a steel and concrete building of pleasing design housing a restaurant, and bathing booths. The hot weather had set in, but here a cool breeze blew down a gully on the hillside into the windows.

I had always liked the place because of its informality. You could eat your dinner, and dance and talk, in shorts, and so keep cool, as compared with the stricter etiquette of the Gloucester and Hongkong Hotels, or the Repulse Bay Hotel, or even the Peninsular Hotel across the harbour, where several nights a week you were required to don "black ties". The charming English custom of dressing for dinner is ill adapted to the perspiring tropics.

Submitted by Admin on Thu, 2007-10-25 14:34.

1920s view from Middle Bay

1940s view of Lido