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Gwulo.com is for everyone that is interested in old Hong Kong.

If it's your first visit, you might like to start with one of the popular articles listed on the right, or just scroll down to browse through recent articles.

I hope you'll join in too, and ask a question or share your knowledge. Most pages let you leave a comment, and there's always the Forum where you can post a new message.

Enjoy the site,

David

PS 'Gwu lo' is roughly how '古老' sounds in Cantonese. It means 'ancient' or 'old-fashioned'.

1950s Norman Lawson's photos

Submitted by David on Fri, 2010-03-05 17:59

Thanks to Craig for getting access to these photos for us. As I understand the story, he met a family friend, Norman Lawson, who was visiting HK, with the offer to help him get around HK. On meeting, he found that Norman had also bought a well-annotated photo album from his time in HK in the mid-1950s.

Norman kindly agreed to share the photos, so Craig borrowed the album, scanned all the pages, and here they are.

Craig also sent this brief introduction from Norman: Read more »

National Tavern

Submitted by David on Thu, 2010-03-04 17:49
in

This is linked to the John Olson story - he was the publican of this Tavern for many years.

Initial discussions of its location placed it much further west, based on an address given as "292, Queen's Road West". Today, that address is for a building on the corner of Centre Street and Queen's Road West in Sai Ying Pun.

But in fact the tavern was back in Sheung Wan. We can confirm that from the mentions of the Tavern in the newspaper reports of Annual Licensing sessions: Read more »

Japanese tunnel under Braemar Hill AOP

Submitted by Admin on Wed, 2010-03-03 14:37
in

In last month's visit to the Braemar Hill AOP, we also took the chance to take a look in the tunnel beneath it.

The tunnel is more complex than the usual 'dig a hole in the hillside'. First they had to make this hole in the AOP's floor:

Then they dug down. Here's the view up from the bottom of the hole:

Read more »

LongJin (aka 'Lung Tsun') Pier / Kowloon City Public Pier [1875-1942]

Submitted by David on Sun, 2010-02-28 21:58

This pier was built in the 1870s by the Chinese government. It changed shape several times, as reclamation ate it up from the landward end, and different extensions were added to it at the seaward end.

The pier disappered completely in 1942, during further reclamation for the expansion of Kai-Tak airport by the Japanese . Read more »

TST Post Office (3rd location) [1934- ]

Submitted by David on Sat, 2010-02-27 22:30

This was on Salisbury Road, next to the KCR terminus and opposite the old Marine Police HQ.

Moddsey writes:

The move [from its first location] across Salisbury Road to larger premises was completed in November 1933 when a showroom and garage formerly occupied by Messrs. Alex. Ross & Co. on KCR property was converted into a Post Office with a large public hall with fitted counters, sorting room and records office. Read more »

1898 The Albany

Submitted by David on Sun, 2010-02-21 23:26
in
Image: 

Here's a picture of The Albany, taken near the end of the 19th Century. It was an imposing building - to get a sense of its size, zoom in to the sixth archway from the left. You'll see  Read more »

Dates on Places: automatically added to the place's name

Submitted by David on Fri, 2010-02-19 13:42
in

Another stint in the boiler room, this time adding dates to a place's name (aka its 'title'). eg if you look at this 1945 photo, you'll see these places listed: Read more »

Sirmio

Submitted by David on Tue, 2010-02-16 17:56
in
Image: 

I found this in Cat Street last week, among a pile of old photos.

It's one of those tiny thumbnail photos, appx 4 x 2.5cm, and I nearly threw it down as a photo from someone's trip to Europe. But  Read more »

Roman Catholic Cathedral (1st location, Wellington St.) [????-1886]

Submitted by David on Fri, 2010-02-12 16:05

Does anyone know the exact location of this? I think it was on the corner of Wellington & Pottinger streets, but I'm not sure which corner it was.

It had two towers, which stood above the surrounding buildings and made it a landmark at the time.

I'm not sure of the dates it was built or demolished either. HFSiu notes that: Read more »

Aberdeen Dockyards [1855-1970]

Submitted by David on Tue, 2010-02-09 16:19
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There were dockyards here from the 1850s: Read more »

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