Premieses of Tak Yan School at No.2 Nelson St / No. 61 Tung Choi St, Mongkok, which was Wah Yan College, Kowloon, built by Peter Tsui in 1927/28. A mortgage was obtained from the Ho Hang Bank (later becoming the Overseas Chinese Bank). Photo late-1950s; source unknown.
Original Wah Yan College, Kowloon
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Submitted by Lawrence Tsui
Date picture taken (may be approximate):
Sunday, January 1, 1956
Connections:
- Original Wah Yan College, Kowloon shows Place Wah Yan College, Kowloon (2nd location) / Tak Yan School [1928-1977]
Comments
Wah Yan College Kowloon at Austin Road
Just before the Japanese invasion, Wah Yan College Kowloon expanded its senior section to 103 Austin Road; which became Tak Sun School Post-war. The old building has since been rebuilt.
Re: Original Wah Yan College, Kowloon
Thanks Lawrence. Do you know if there was any official connection between Tak Yan and Wah Yan after the Jesuits took over the latter?
The centenary of Wah Yan College Hong Kong is coming up, would you be interested in writing a book about the history of the Wah Yan Colleges?
Wah Yan College, Kowloon
After founding Wah Yan College, Hong Kong (WYHK), and attaining success by 1924, Peter Tsui recruited a Partner Andrew Lim Hoi-lan. He offered Lim equal partnership without equity investment. Lim was appointed Headmaster of WYHK, while Peter Tsui became the Director. Tsui went on to develop WYC Kowloon (WYK) which was also rapidly successful. He built devoted premiese at the Nelson / Tung Choi St site for it. When WYHK was handed over to the Jesuits to operate in 1933, the partnership between Tsui & Lim also desolved. As part of the settlement, Lim was to cross over to operate WYK renting the premises from Tsui. In 1946, the DoEducation encouraged Lim to handover WYK to the Jesuits to operate which he did. Lim was retained as Headmaster of WYK. The Jesuits operated WYK at the premises until circa 1954 when the school was moved to Waterloo Road. Lim started up his own Tak Yan School renting the Nelson Rd premises from Tsui.
Tak Yan College, Kowloon
Thanks Lawrence for the history of Tak Yan College at Nelson. I attended briefly Tak Yan in mid1950s so students from that era will remember its tasty red-bean congee, and pancakes with syrup made by a street vendour. The scary thing was the sight of madam's thick ruler which fortunately never reached me perhaps because I sat in the back row.
Tak Yan College, Kowloon
Additional notes moved here from a duplicate copy of this photo:
Tak Yan College Premises
Submitted by Lawrence Tsui on Sun, 2020-08-16 09:44.
The premises at Nelson St used by Tak Yan College in the 50s & 60s were formerly Wah Yan College Kowloon, started up in 1924. The property at KIL1290 Nelson St was acquired in 1927 and the building completed in 1928. WYK was made a Grant-in-Aid School. An adjacent property was later acquired for an annex to house the school offices and a boarding house. There was also an apartment serving as a staff quarter in this annex. The property were built and owned by my grandfather, Peter Yan-sau Tsui who was the founder of the two WYCs. In 1933, operation of WYHK was handedover to the Irish Jesuits. WYK continued to be operated by a former partner Lim Hoy-lan at the Nelson St premises, rented from Peter Tsui. WYK stopped operation during the Japanese Occupation. In 1946, operation of WYK was also handed over to the Irish Jesuits. It remained in the premises until 1954 when WYK was relocated to Waterloo Rd. Tak Yan College started up operation renting the old premises from Peter Tsui. The properties were sold for redevelopment in the early 1970s (circa 1974).
Lawrence Tsui
Date of Photo
Submitted by moddsey on Sun, 2020-08-16 22:02.
The car in the photo looks like from a later period. Perhaps from the 70s.
That is almost definitely
Submitted by mhistory on Wed, 2020-08-19 20:03.
That is almost definitely FIAT model 124 that went into production in 1966
Architect of the building
Peter Tsui Yan-sau was the founder of Wah Yan College. Alfred James Lane was the architect of the school building. This building was opened in April 1928. [1]
[1] See "BIGGEST SCHOOL IN HONGKONG.": WAH YAN COLLEGE OPENS BRANCH TO ACCOMMODATE KOWLOON BOYS HISTORY OF ITS GROWTH, South China Morning Post, 27 April 1928.