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In chapter 9 of Martin Booth's book, he describes a tram ride from Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan.

Here are the photos we've been sent that show the views he'd have seen along that route.

Many thanks to the people who have shared their photographs with us.

1950s Junction of Morrison St & Des Voeux Rd Central

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Des Voeux Road Central

Image (external): 
1950s Des Voeux road
The above image is hosted on the Flickr website. Click the image to view it on that website.

There's a good hi-res copy available on Flickr.

Its a very similar view to this one.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Des Voeux Rd C, looking east towards Wing On

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Wing On Dept Store, Des Voeux Rd C.

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

De Voeux Road - Soldier of Fortune

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1955
Places shown in this photo: 

De Voeux Road - Soldier of Fortune

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1955
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Des Voeux Road Central

received by email.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Des Voeux Road Central

Image (external): 
1950s Des Voeux road
The above image is hosted on the Flickr website. Click the image to view it on that website.
Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Des Voeux Road Central, near Fire Station

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Des Voeux Road Central near GPO

received by email.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Des Voeux Road Central near Ice House Street

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Statue Square and temporary government buildings

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Des Voeux Road Central

Received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

Buildings around the cricket pitch

Image (external): 
Central
The above image is hosted on the Flickr website. Click the image to view it on that website.

Do you think this photo was taken in the 1950s or 1960s?

The covered walkway between the HK Club building and its annexe is just visible.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Des Voeux Road Central near Banks

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1953

1950s Queensway

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Fred Evans' photos, Cheero Club, taken from tram

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1958
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Fred Evans' photos, View from Cheero Club

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1958

1950s Cricket Club

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Court & Cricket Club

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Hennessy Rd / Queens Road East Junction

Photo courtesy of Andrew Suddaby

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1958
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Western junction of Hennessy & Johnston Roads

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Chinese Methodist Church

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1955
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Johnston Rd & Southorn Playground

Received by email:

The sign for the old Pawnshop (now the site of 'The Pawn') can be seen on the extreme right of this photo.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

Johnston Road, Wanchai

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Johnston Rd

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Johnston Road

Photo courtesy of Andrew Suddaby

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1958

1950s Wanchai Road

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Junction of Johnston Rd, Wanchai Rd, and Fleming Rd

Received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Johnston Road, looking West

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Eastern junction of Hennessy & Johnston Roads

Received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Wanchai

Received via email.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Hennessy Rd near Canal Rd

Image (external): 
1950s Wanchai near Gooseneck
The above image is hosted on the Flickr website. Click the image to view it on that website.
Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Percival Street & New York Cinema

1950s Percival Street & New York Cinema

Received via email.

From 1954-55 showing the junction of Percival St and Hennessy Rd with New York Cinema in the background. The movie Mad about Men was released in late 1954.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1955

1950s Hennessy Road

Image (external): 
wan chai
The above image is hosted on the Flickr website. Click the image to view it on that website.

Part of the set of photos along the tram tracks.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1955

1950s Hennessy Road

Photo courtesy of Andrew Suddaby

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1958

Hennesy Road, 1953

Image (external): 
Hennessy road 1953
The above image is hosted on the Flickr website. Click the image to view it on that website.

You can just see the spike on the top of Capitol Theatre sticking up above the blue & red sign on the right of this photo. It's worth clicking through to Flickr, as it has some interesting notes in the comments.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1953

1950s Corner of Yee Wo St & Jardine's Bazaar

in

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Hoover Theatre

1950s Hoover Theatre
Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Causeway Bay Roundabout

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Roxy, Causeway Bay

Photo courtesy of Andrew Suddaby

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1958
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Causeway Bay Roundabout

in

received by email

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

1950s Causeway Road & Typhoon Shelter

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

1950s Tin Hau

Image (external): 
1950s streetscene
The above image is hosted on the Flickr website. Click the image to view it on that website.
Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950
Places shown in this photo: 

Comments

Can you add any more?

Do you have any photos from the 1950s that show sections of the tram lines that we've missed above? If you are willing to share, it's easy to add them in.

Just create a new image,  and fill in:

  • Title:
  • Image:
  • Tags: type in the word tram
  • Date picture taken...: Type in the date, or type 1950-01-01 if you're not sure.
  • Places shown...: Choose at least one place that appears in the photo

Then once you save the new image it will automatically appear in the right place on this page. Let us know if you need any help.

How does it work?

This page relies on several of the features we've talked about lately.

If you had a big box of photos of Hong Kong, and I wanted you to make a display like this, I'd ask for something like:

  • Give me all photos that show trams,
  • and that were taken in the 1950s,
  • then lay them out in the order you would see them if you were sitting on an eastbound tram.

"all photos that show trams" - this uses tags. We tell the computer to search for all images that have the tag 'tram'.

"that were taken in the 1950s" - that's easy, we tell the computer to further limit its search to images with a 'date picture taken' between 1950 and 1959.

"lay them out in order" - here we use the 'places shown' . Luckily the tram line runs almost exactly West to East, so we can tell the computer to sort the images by 'ascending longitude'.

Filling in tags, dates, and places takes a bit more time and effort when we create the image. But I think it's worth it, as then it lets us search and view them in more interesting ways.

wonderful work

You've done a fabulous job on this.  It makes me think how wonderful it would be if the govt. had turned Tamar site into a nice big green park.  It also made me think of my recent Guangzhou trip - it's true that bits of current Guangzhou look like 1950's des voeux road - so visit and photograph it while you can!

Thanks!

Glad you enjoyed it - and it's been a few years since I've been to Guangzhou, so yes, a visit is overdue!

Dutchman's Videos

Hey guys, I am a random person.  This dutchman got some cool videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelRogge 

Just want to share them with you.   Enjoy!