Unknown | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Unknown

Unknown

Any idea?

Date picture taken (may be approximate): 
Wednesday, January 1, 1890
Connections: 

Comments

Can you make out the first word below the photo? It's a bit too small for me to read.

Regards, David

Hi there,

Would the hand writing on the photo be the name of the house?  I noticed the photo seemed to show two small guns as outdoor decorations.

By the look of it, I guess that should be somewhere at the Peak, or along the ridge line toward Magazine Gap/Wanchai Gap/Middle Gap.

Could to list of the Peak Building help?

Best Regards,

T

I think this is Garden Road with Upper Albert Road on the right. The building would be where St. Jospeh's Church is today.

Cannot be sure but looks like junction of Upper and Lower Albert Roads to me.

On closer inspection, more likely to be Upper Albert and Albany Roads, with that house being the old College Gardens building, where Church Guest House/Martin House is now? 

This looks more like the junction of Upper/Lower Albert Roads (below Government House and former CGO).  Albany Road is on a continuous decline coming down from Robinson and onward to Glenealy.

But at first glance I thought it would be somewhere on the Peak or maybe Macdonnell/Kennedy Roads.

As for that "xxxx for Hong Kong"... can't figure it out.

 

Compare it with this later pic of the Upper Albert/Albany junction. Look similar?

You might be right!  ;)

Thanks Adam, you've nailed it. Looking at another photo of College Gardens, they're a match for the style of building.

Regards, David

Yes, good work and nice match on the building.

Thanks. I must confess to having an unfair advantage though, as I lived in Church Guest House for 10 years, so that view, however old, must be fairly embedded in the subconcious.

It is interesting to note the greenery around at the time particularly the tree at the junction of Albany and Upper Albert Roads. Makes me wonder whether Glenealy (the road) extended down the slope to Wyndham St at the time. Cheers.

There was quite a bit of change there in the 1960s when the bridge/flyover was built to connect Caine Road with Upper Albert. Before then, I think Albany and Upper Albert merged and went downhill around the northern edge of the west side of the Botanical Gardens, and round to Caine Road, and Glenealy was a just a pathway. Though even looking at the junction from right there, today it's hard to visualise what it really looked like. Old maps help a bit.  

I have just uploaded a photo looking back down in the opposite direction from the photo that tops this thread, showing the junction in 1964.

Nearly 50 years ago. Nice photo of the junction.

Thanks. Althought College Garden from this direction is a bit uncommon. how could I miss that!

The original photo at the top of this thread shows College Gardens (and so is pre 1919). The later b&w photo that I linked to shows Church Guesthouse, latterly kown as Martin House*, which was built on the same site. 

*Although some utility co. bills sent to the building still say Church Guesthouse.