Pool in Lai Chi Kok – is it still there? [????- ]

Hi Peter

This structure you have highlighted as a pool is in fact a garage. I'm fairly certain that the property here is the original one from when the land was developed and the footprint of both the house and detached garage haven't changed over the years.

I'll try and get over there at some point in the next few days and take some up-to-date photos.

Phil

It's possible Peter, but then it would have been a tiny pool, not much bigger than a car.

Edit: kpl has kindly uploaded a recent image.

鍾山臺1號, by kpl

Off topic: that looks like a BMWi3!

Hi Peter, sorry for the misunderstanding, I was using the term "garage" in the British sense i.e. for storing a car.

The garage in question appears to be the same one that has always been at the property - the same shape and size (especially relative to the house, which is the same as when first built). Could there have been a pool there that was exactly the same shape and size and hence the confusion? Sure, but I doubt very much, given its size, that it would have had a springboard and deep end and have been large enough to accomodate more than just a very few people...there just isn't enough space. Perhaps one of the other properties had the pool you recall.

Phil

A photo of Chung Shan Terrace appears at: https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s7526g21r#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-62%2C-55%2C1123%2C1085 No change to the exterior.

I lived with my parents and siblings in No. 4 Chung Shan Terrace from 1952, in Wharf Company quarters.   Two storey apartment blocks, a long walk up from the bus!!   There was a different type of residential building at No. 1 - grey stone rather than cream as our homes were - never knew of a pool but I think the person who ran / owned the amusement park lived there - I learned to swim at the Amusement Park, and to roller skate!!    Later the hillside below us was developed into numerous blocks of smaller apartments and we were moved by the Company to Kowloon Tong.

I can be your remote video cam as I walk around if you want to FaceTime. 

I think we at No. 4 and the one to our left facing the buildings were occupied by Kowloon Wharf people - certainly in 1952-54.  I had to get the bus home from Star Ferry (where I dropped off the bus from KGV) which originally stopped way down and I had to walk past beach huts/swimming pavillions, the amusement park, a paddy field and up the hill.  There was a track down to the Village but I used the road all the way.  Eventually the No. 6 bus came as far as the amusements so shortened the walk somewhat...white KGV uniform  did help!

I think the whole area changed dramatically in my 36 years in Hong Kong! Would get well and truly lost now.

Just wondering, are the white two-storey houses up the hill Chung Shan Terrace?

Lai Chi Kok beach d., by Malcolm Trousdale

Thos are certainly Chung Shan Terrace.....the lowest one was on quite a hairpin bend and the village pathway went down on that bend on the left of the photo.

I think the white buildings behind the amusement park were two blocks of flats called Happy Villas and housed UK RN or Military families in my day.  The paddy fields were behind them.  If you drove up Chung Shan Terrace and turned left into Castle Peak Road at the top you would come down to what was a leper hospital and then on into more built up areas.   Sham Shui Po and Mong Kok etc.

I think the No. 16 bus went from Jordan Road ferry terminal on the upper route and No. 6 from

Star Ferry along the bottom!!

The highest blocks in the photo are Chung Shan Terrace as they were, then the buildings lower down started to go up.....I would not recognise it after all these years.    Left there in about 1954-55  for Wharf quarters in Cambridge Road, Kowloon Tong, then to St George's Court in Kadoorie Ave.  When I married in 1964 lived over in Pokfulam and eventually left Hong Kong in 1986.    Thank you for sharing.

Sung Dynasty village acrobats, by Andrew Suddaby

InsertAt first I thought there was nothing that I could add to this discussion but as it had its origins in the Springboard girl photograph and Peter's memory of his visits to a house and pool on the Chung Shan Terrace I have followed the thread and was pleasantly surprised to realize that I visited the old Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park site in 1981, when I went to the Sung Dynasty Village, built there. Over the past 40 years or so I have never known exactly where this was except that it was somewhere in the Western area of Kowloon.  To realize that it was actually built on the site of the old Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park raises all sorts of questions about who developed it and when, etc.  Perhaps those with a more detailed  and local knowledge of the history of Hong Kong might be able to contribute something on that.

Meanwhile, I have added  an excellent aerial 3D image from Google Earth that shows where the Sung Dynasty Village (and earlier, the Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park) were and, especially, the two storey house at the right hand end of the upper terrace that is the one remembered by Peter. There is also my 1981 photograph of the acrobats in the Sung Dynasty Village that shows one of the rows of Greenwood Apartments up on  the Chung Shan Terrace, but Peter and I suspect that this was on a lower section of the terrace.

greenwood_villas_1.jpg, by Andrew Suddaby

My goodness - what a difference 70 years can make!!!!   Lai Chi Kok and Chung Shan Terrace have taken on quite a different importance and status by the look of that photograph.   I am so pleased to see it as it is now, thank you.

Find someone with an iPhone in your household or neighborhood who uses FaceTime  .. and borrow it and them for 10 minutes.   There are a minimum of 100 people within a quarter mile radius of you with an iPhone, so… :-)… No excuse bucko (smiley face). The 15 to 18 year olds are always happy to show off. 
 

At a minimum write a note in these comments for the owner, and I will drop it off at the house for you tomorrow.

So to confirm, I'm to drop it off at the house in the photo posted by kpl ?

So to confirm, I'm to drop it off at the house in the photo posted by kpl ?

Letter delivered to the helper who said the owner was at the office. I especially pointed out the website name.  I gave my HK phone number as a text message contact. The nice guard at the top of the hill also heard my story, so I hope it will travel 

now I'm offf to the airport.  

"There has never been a swimming pool in all the houses at C S T. The closest swimming pool was inside Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park. Call me if you wish for more information.

The pool in LCK amusement park was turned into a small zoo.
 

The amusement park known as Lai Yuen has since been flattened n blocks of residential flats now sit on the site.  
 

The LCK bay has been reclaimed into a large landscaped public park with a much larger public swimming pool incorporated into the facilities.
 

In the 50s, the area was Mobil oil storage tanks beside the tree lined road. The area was developed into 99 blocks of flats in the early 70s. The development is known as Mei Foo Sun Tsuen. Mei Foo being the Chinese name for Mobil."

If it was not in CST, it might well be in Happy Villa. Happy Villa 樂園 was right behind Lai Yuen, and had bungalow or 2-story type buildings before it was redeveloped into the 2 highrise condo towers.

The owner is willing to talk with you on this topic.   Please contact me through David.