The Grand Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui [????-????]

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Submitted by philk on Sat, 2008-10-18 14:11

Current condition:

Demolished / No longer exists

Previously thought to be 7 Carnarvon Road, now confirmed as 14 Carnarvon Rd instead. This is the site of the Grand Hotel - the hotel in which Booth and his family first moved into when they arrived in HK.

Tags:

golden boy

chapter 2

hotel

Photos that show this place

1940

1948

1950

See more photos of this place

Comments

The Grand Hotel

Permalink Submitted by David on Mon, 2008-12-01 16:05.

Thanks to the reader who sent in the following images, placing the hotel at 14 Carnarvon Rd, not number 7 as previously suggested. He also notes that the building currently at that location is named 'Grand Centre', as further confirmation. (I've upated the map above).

20'~40' big house

Permalink Submitted by swufrend (not verified) on Thu, 2009-02-26 21:40.

Couple of months ago my mum said my granny used to live in a "big house" on Granville Road towards the Nathan Road end. It is a shame that granny doesn’t keep any photo and since I am miles away from Hong Kong History Museum I am interest to see if anyone has any photos of some sort of "big house" around the 20s to the 40s. So I can picture how she lives her life then.

Back then they have maids and all sort of helper, after she finish work in Wan Chai she would take a ferry home. What I find strange is that even she was working in the family business and great-granddad and her worked at the same place they rarely travel together. I was also told great-granddad had restaurants, convenient stores, drugs store etc. a bit like the 24hour Tesco we have in UK. Many thanks, swufrend

1920s-40s TST

Permalink Submitted by David on Fri, 2009-02-27 15:30.

swufrend, this map and this photo should give you an idea of how the area looked then.

1910s Carnarvon Rd

Permalink Submitted by moddsey on Sat, 2009-02-28 11:02.

grand hotel

Permalink Submitted by vanessa on Fri, 2013-08-16 17:26.

james wren,

i remember the grand well. a schoolfriend's dad managed it for a few years and we often escaped the heat of the streets of tst to lounge on the sofas in the air-conditioned lobby. there was a restaurant inside called 'the viking' which served delicacies like oysters and i often wondered what they tasted like!

The Grand Hotel

Permalink Submitted by Lawrence Tsui on Sun, 2013-09-15 00:18.

In 1974, fresh from the RHKP Police Training School, I was posted to Tsimshatsui. As an Inspector-on-Duty. I was looking for my constables on beat in the middle of the night around 3am when the streets were quiet though just for a fleeting moment. It was the pre-Beat Radio days. I failed to find them. The old Sargeant, who must have picked the wrong joss and had to escort this silly rookie Bong Baang, suggested we should go into the Grand Hotel. The freindly & cheerful night security guard happened to be a former Foki. He would unlock the glass door and let us in, re-locking it so that no senior or junior officer could enter to catch us dozing off. We would go into the darkened cafe, lounged in the seats, and served a cup of hot English Tea, with little apprehension that our revolvers may be snatched. Half an hour later when we emerged, the beat constables were showing up at the Conference Points... An entirely new set of people began to emerge at around this time, going to work in the restaurants and the markets... It was the beginning of another day of busy Tsimshatsui.

Grand Hotel has a rather European flavour in my impression. It was a pre-747 hotel with a small lobby, rather like the Astor Hotel nearby. The new Jumbo-era one was the Hong Kong Hotel with a huge lobby, completed not long before this time.

I stayed there in 1978

Permalink Submitted by swimsallyswim on Mon, 2018-08-13 21:05.

I stayed in The Grand in May 1978, with a group from Sydney University. We were on a trip to China...stayed there before and after. I have a photo from my room window. Also have a hotel brochure. Have added some pics.