La Clare Mansion [1965- ]

LA CLARE MANSION
92 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
A memoire

The building turned 50 in 2015-Happy Birthday, La Clare!

The original Pokfulam Road hugged the hillside between Pokfield and Mount Davis Roads. A later re-alignment (when was this built?) saw the road driven straight between these two points resulting in a spacious bus and mini-van terminal at Pokfield Road, the creation of a small public park and floodlit hard surface mini soccer pitch adjacent to Pokfulam Road itself and a small number of buildings finding themselves on a leafy cul-de-sac informally known today as “ Old” Pokfulam Road. One of these buildings is La Clare Mansion No. 92 Pokfulam Road.

By the mini soccer pitch on the east of Old Pokfulam Road sits a clump of trees, including a senior, impressive Banyan. A gaggle of children from the buildings on Old Pokfulam Road congregate beneath it on weekday mornings awaiting their school bus. 

La Clare Mansion was completed in 1965. As per the Land Office records it consists of two blocks each of 24 residential units-one car park to a unit-with a central lift to each block. “A” Block is that nearest Pokfulam Road with “B” Block nestling the hillside.  A steep vehicular drive leads from the road up to the development. 

Pedestrian access is by steps from the road up to the courtyard. A small shrine has its place half way up the steps. 

To complicate matters the original owners decided to designate each twelve storey tower with one of the first four letters of the alphabet, so in every day usage there are “A” and “B” blocks in the tower named A Block in the Land Office records, and “C” and “D” blocks in the second tower. I shall use the current use descriptions. 

The flats in A/B Block are larger than C/D Block but both towers were built in the then Colonial style with spacious floor areas, high ceilings and large balconies to the front, plus maid’s quarters at the rear. 
And they were wired for Redifusion Cable TV, the sole TV company at the time, long before TVB and ATV were to become free-to-air broadcasters. 

1965 sale prices for the A/B units were HK$ 110,000 and HK$ 100,000 for the C/D units. 

Each flat came with Typhoon Shutters. These were wooden planks, much like railway sleepers but less substantial, to protect the French windows on to the balcony in the event of a severe storm. Each plank was about 8 inches across and probably 10 foot tall numbered consecutively to be placed in numerical order in runners in front of the windows until all were in line and the windows closed protectively behind them. 

The building holds happy memories for me. 

I first owned in D block on a low floor, around 1976. When our twins were born in 1983 we sought more space so bought in B block on a high floor. We departed La Clare in 1997.

The manager was a Mr. Kwan assisted by his dog Wong Choi (what else?). In the day he sat at a steel desk under A/B block supervising the car parking. His desk held an abacus, a note pad and a bundle of suppliers’ receipts. He lived out but had toilet facilities in C/D block.  

And off to one side beneath A/B block there was an open area for table tennis. My children learned to roller skate in this small recreational space. 

At one per apartment car parking spaces were limited. Preferred were the spaces under the two blocks which gave some protection against the weather. Otherwise parking was to the side of the drive, with a few guest spaces at the bottom of the drive and additionally a small number in the courtyard. 

The driveway was steep, of the “one-up-or-one-down-at-a-time” variety. Delivery vehicles had to drop to first gear and strain their engines to make the climb to the courtyard. Our flat on a low floor in D block could be noisy. 

I do not recall the guardhouse at the top of the steps being occupied at night. Its position was exposed. There was no phone-link to the Police. Security, therefore, was Kwan or his dog, nothing more. 

There came the sad day that Wong Choi was no more. His place was taken by a black Labrador puppy named Hak Chai (of course!). Wong Choi was a sedentary creature. Hak Chai was quite the opposite, obviously a ladies man with little fear of the traffic on Pokfulam Road. He was always off down the steps getting in to trouble, usually fights with male dogs protecting their local territories on Old Pokfulam Road but occasionally conflicts with passing vehicles. He was lovingly looked after by one of the families in the development and adored by my young children.

Hak Chai’s nightly absences did not enhance the security of La Clare. It was a simple matter for a burglar to scale the outside of the units, balcony to balcony, and prise open the French windows to gain access. Anecdotal evidence was that many occupants suffered intrusion although I never learned of physical injury to a resident. That we did not suffer theft was down to the work of a security company who supplied and fitted two large second hand burglar alarms to my flat, one outside the front door, the other imposingly above the French windows. I have no idea how many would be intruders may have taken a look at our abode and decided to chance their luck in another but none knew the alarms were not wired and would have emitted no sound upon a break-in. 

La Clare was an especially happy development. With only 48 residences everyone knew everyone else by sight if not always by name. I was not the only owner who moved within the development. Owners wanting to move told Kwan and he undertook to pass the information to other residents.

The owners were long established business persons and professionals. I recall at least two accountants, lawyers, a company secretary, a cotton trader, members of the small Parsee community, one of the territory’s first contemporary art dealers, an architect and a restauranteur with a pair of Dalmatians. 

The views from high in B block were magnificent, especially on a fine summer day when the SW monsoon was bringing clear air to the territory. In those times Tsing Yi was undeveloped, Lantau shimmered in the distance, shipping moored in the western harbor. A truly spectacular canvas. 

A path covering the culvert runs along the Pokfulam hillside from Hatton Road to QM Hospital. A small gate on the La Clare driveway permitted access to the stream that ran between La Clare and the adjacent building, “Brookside”.  When the stream was not running it was a simple climb to the path and the countryside of HK Island, the occasional drinking rat snake notwithstanding. I devised a method of persuading my twins to get out of the flat for fresh air. Each, armed with thick gloves and a sack between them, were instructed to pick up discarded soft drink containers to a set tariff, something like HK$ 5 for an aluminum can and HK$ 10 for a glass bottle. I recall one occasion when unknown to me renovation work was being done along the length of the culvert. The work finished, the men had left the path strewn with soft drink canisters and plastic bottles. The children’s savings accounts swelled. 

And if we were lucky on the path we might see the troupe of squirrels that moves annually from Tai Tam all the way to Hatton Road and back. 

With heavy rain the water running off the Peak and into the stream cascaded down its rocky bed towards the very aptly named “Brookside”, 94 Pokfulam Road.  How that stream sang when in spate! 

December 2015