Hillier Street Looking From Bonham Strand East. 1910

Sun, 06/19/2016 - 02:01

Source: This image originally came from Flickr, saved from old Gwulo.

Date picture taken
1910s
Author(s)

Comments

HK Island Roads and Streets by Cheng Po Hung pg 17

The house with the church-like spire in the background was rebuilt as the Central Theatre in the 1930s. (Not sure if it was a religious institution.)

HKGRO

Central Theatre was completed in 1930 and located at Queen's Road Central and Circular Pathway. Further information provided here

I have never seen the original B/W photograph. Thus, I cannot make a comparison with the main postcard.

The photograph has been later turned into a postcard, a B/W version as seen above and a coloured/tinted one. The coloured postcard is annotated at the bottom "Chinese St. Stalls, Hong Kong".

Another coloured postcard showing the same scene is shown below. "Chinese Street, Stalls, Hong Kong" is also annotated. 

In both coloured postcards, the actual location is not given. What appears to be a "church" in the main postcard is not apparent in the coloured one below. Looks like an awning or canopy in the background instead.

I do note in the public archive "Hong Kong Memory" as seen here that Hillier Street is given as the location of the main postcard.

Food for thought.

1910s Chinese Street Stalls
1910s Chinese Street Stalls, by moddsey

 

 

The 1937 HK Street Index refers on page 243:

Wanchai Road    
33 I.L. 378 and I.L. 379 Chapel
35 I.L. 379 and
37 I.L. 379 School

Street numbers and lots are on Wanchai Road opposite the junction with Cross Street. So actually there was a chapel, but that does not necessarily mean that the photo shows Cross Street instead of Hillier Street.

More about this school and chapel here.

True, Cross Street only remains as a candidate.

So far, the possibility of Hillier Street (as in "Hong Kong Memory") can be eliminated.

In the colour photo, we can see the component of sunlight pointing into the photo, to the photographer’s left.

For the southern section of Hillier Street, it means the sun's azimuthal angle has to be between 300 deg – 30 deg (0 deg being North), which is impossible in HK with that sun elevation shown.

I think an actual photo of the “chapel” should provide some photographic evidence. Does anyone have such photo of the chapel on Wanchai Road at street level?