Requesting Pre-war Electric Road Photos for my grandma | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Requesting Pre-war Electric Road Photos for my grandma

Hi all,

I am looking for pre-war photographs of Electric Road, North Point, to prove something which my grandmother had been telling me for years.

My grandmother, who unfortunately passed away two years ago, lived on Electric Road before 1940. She told me that, along with some distant relatives rented a flat on Electric Road, and worked at a torch factory in North Point (she could never work out what the factory was called), where she was involved in 'mixing battery powder'.

A strange thing in what she told me is that she used to be woken up by the first tram in the morning that ran along Electric Road - despite myself repeatedly correcting her at the time that trams ran along Kings Road.

Then she told me that trams were not diverted onto Kings Road until the Japanese came.

I made an interview with her about a year before she passed away, recorded on video - I shall have that ripped and uploaded onto the internet.

I would appreciate if anyone could supply photographs, or maps, of Electric Road before the war, that might allow me to see whether my grandmother had been correct in her memories.

It would also be nice if someone could list what torch factories existed at North Point in the 1930s.

Although it is already too late to show these photographs to my grandmother, I could always show them to my mother who remains a sceptic of her mother's recollections!

Many thanks and cheers

Forum: 

I could only guess that, if my grandmother was correct, the tramway was not re-routed along King's Road until 1935, the year when the widening of King's Road was completed.

Hi there,

There is a Wiki entry in Chinese telling the same thing, saying the Electric Road used to be the main road (part of Shaukiwan Road) in the turn of the century back in the early 1900's.  It used to be the shoreline and the original Shaukiwan road exist since 1840's.

I guess what was why when I view the Old Yacht Club photos that I had a feeling that the hill back then was much closer.  Modern day King's Road between Fortress Hill and Tin Hau MTR Stations there are still places showing near verticle rock faces.  I guess back in the 1900's the natural slope extended to somewhere between in the middle of King's Road and Electric Road.

Best Regards,

T

Hi T,

The Yacht Club in the photo you linked to was over in Wanchai!

But you're right that when the tramline was built there was only a single road along the coast in today's Tin Hau / North Point area. Then it was called Shau Kei Wan Road, now it's called Electric Road.

Regards, David

Hi there,

Oh, thanks for the correction.  I'll see if I could remove the link first.  BTW, the old shipyard next to the Causeway Bay Fire Station had finally been demolished.  The walled up area is now cleared, with only a few trees left and quite a lot of birds.

 

Best Regards,

T