Photos of old Hong Kong and the tales they tell - Volume 2

Submitted by David on Mon, 04/01/2013 - 09:56

This hour-long talk takes you on a trip around old Hong Kong, using photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

This is the second talk, and has photos grouped into four sections:

  • A walk around early 20th-century Central
  • Queen's Road from West to East
  • A young girl's daily journey from home on the Peak to school in Kowloon
  • Scenes of construction and destruction

Instead of a static Powerpoint presentation, I use high-resolution scans of the photos so we can zoom in on their hidden details. At the same time I'll be telling stories of the people, places and events the photos show.

Here are the photos I use in this talk. You can click any photo to see a more detailed copy, and notes about that photo.

A walk around Central in the early 20th-century 

We'll start off on the old seafront

1901. On the Praya

 

turn into Pedder Street

c.1922 The best hotel in Hong Kong

 

walk along Des Voeux Road

c.1935 Des Voeux Road Central

 

cross over into Queen's Road

1920s Queen's Road Central

 

then take a look up Pottinger Street

1930s Pottinger Street

 

Queen's Road from West to East

The next sequence follows Queen's Road across the island. We'll start off in Sai Ying Pun

c.1900 View over Sai Ying Pun

 

move over to Central

c.1886 View over Central and the Harbour

 

then Admiralty

1907 View over BMH & Naval Yards to Harbour

 

and Wanchai.

[Not online yet]

 

We drop back down to street-level to see the junction with Wanchai Road

c.1895 Wanchai

 

and end up at the old Gap Road

c.1930 Funeral procession along Gap Road
c.1930 Funeral procession along Gap Road, by David

 

A young girl's daily journey from home on the Peak to school in Kowloon

In the next sequence we follow Jean Gittins' daily journey from home on the Peak to school in Kowloon. We'll start with the main road from home

[not currently online]

 

around to the Peak Tram station

c.1900 Peak Hotel

 

There we hop on a tram downhill

[Not online yet]

 

and walk over to catch a Star Ferry from the pier at Ice House Street

c.1955 Star Ferry

 

Over in TST we jumped in a rickshaw

1930s Hurrying to TST

 

then relaxed as we rode along Nathan Road

1920s Nathan Road

 

Scenes of construction and destruction

The last set starts off with the destruction caused by typhoons in 1936

1936 Typhoon: beached ship

 

1906

1906 The Praya near Blake Pier

 

and 1926

1926 Landslide

 

Then we switch from natural to man-made destruction, with the demolition of this famous old building

Another old building meets the wrecking ball

 

The next photo straddles the destruction / construction line, excavating Morrison Hill to reclaim the shoreline

1920s Excavation of Morrison Hill

 

and finally we'll see a couple of the miners who dug the Beacon Hill tunnel, sitting in their cable car

c.1908 Fly to work with the KCR !

 

Q&A

The presentation takes around 50 minutes. After that I'm happy to answer any questions the audience has about the photos and stories.