Scandal Point [????- ]

Submitted by David on Fri, 09/24/2010 - 13:44
Current condition
Unknown

Anonymous asked:

I came across a war article that mentioned Scandal Point. Does anyone know where it is and how it got it's name?

David:

It was where the South-West corner of the Queensway Government Offices are today:

If you squint at the 1880 and 1939 maps here, you can see that place is marked 'Scandal Point'.

I've also wondered how it got the name. Anyone know?

Moddsey:

Scandal Point appears to be named after a similar place in Shimla (originally called Simla), India where people tended to congregate and gossip whilst they took in a view of the city.

An extract from Jan Morris' Hong Kong (1880s: The Complete Colony, Pg 136): "In the afternoons ladies would be carried out in their wicker sedan chairs for promenades, along Kennedy Road to the place they called Scandal Point, after the Simla original, or to the fine Botanical Gardens; and there they would sit and read in the fresh air, still in their chairs, looking out across the harbour while their chairmen sat gossiping on the grass beside them."

In later years the sanitary state of the growing town of Victoria had become a major issue which not only affected the health of the civilian population but also the troops in the military cantonments. Sanitary recommendations were accepted by the Government for the total removal of all civilian tenements and shops in the area known as Canton Bazaar (below Flagstaff House, now called the Museum of Tea Ware)facing the Naval Yard and for the civilian community to be excluded from the promenade between Flagstaff Hose and Scandal Point. (G. R Sayer's Hong Kong 1862-1919 refers).

Scandal Point appears to have fallen out of use after WWII.

David:

 View from Scandal Point in the 1870s: http://gwulo.com/node/1590

80skid:

scandal point in the 70s...

http://picasaweb.google.com/Colin.Aitchison7/VictoriaBarracksHongKongIn…

Photos that show this Place

Comments