Taikoo Ropeway
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This used to run from the Quarry Bay area at the bottom of the hill, up the valley to Quarry Gap.
When the ropeway (another name for 'cable-car') was running, Quarry Bay held the Taikoo Dockyard and Taikoo Sugar Refinery, while Quarry Gap was known as Sanitarium Gap, and was the site of the Taikoo Sanitarium.
When did it run?
But when did the ropeway run? The 'Mapping Hong Kong' book shows the 'Tai-Koo Sanitarium' on plate 7-1, a tourist guide map from 1896. It also mentions the building in one of the guide's suggested sight-seeing routes:
PROGRAMME No. 7
Proceed by ricksha to Bay View [a building that stood near where Tin Hau MTR is today], as the road is too long and uninteresting up to this point; thence walk to Quarry Bay, where, after having passed the entrance to the Sugar Refinery, about one hundred yards further on, just before crossing a bridge, you will see on your right hand, the pathway up the hill [the pathway is today's Mount Parker Road]. Something under one hour should bring you to the top, which is only a gap about feet 1,000 [sic.] above sea level. Here are the Sanatorium buildings of the Taikooo Sugar Refinery, Messrs. Butterfield & Swire. [The walk continues down to Ty Tam reservoir, up to Wongnai Chung Road, then down to Happy Valley, where 'we can obtain a ricksha to convey us to town.']
That same map shows a dotted line that runs from near the 'Tai-koo Sugar works' up to the Sanitarium. I wonder if this was already the cable car in place?
Plate 2-12 in the same book is a wartime map, dated 1939-40, and overprinted with Japanese. It shows the 'TaiKoo Sanitarium' building, connected to the 'Sugar Refinery' by an 'Aerial Ropeway', so it was in use then.
Plate 2-13 is a 1949 map. It still shows a dotted line along the course of the ropeway, and the outline of the sanatorium building is there too. Neither are labelled though, and the Gap is now labelled 'Quarry Gap'. So, perhaps the building and the ropeway were damaged during the war, and were never repaired afterwards?
What did it look like?
The ropeway can be seen in several photos from the G. Warren Swire collection (click the thumbnail to see a larger view of the photo):
- In the bottom of this photo, you can see one of the white towers that supported the ropeway.
- Here's a better view, showing the towers running up the valley.
- And here's the view from the top looking down the valley. The concrete platform on the right was likely the place for loading and unloading.
Reader IDJ has sent in this photo of a cable car at the loading bay:
Are there any remains?
We've also been sent the following notes and photograph by Rob Weir, suggesting that some signs of the ropeway remain:
Some time ago, when I was scouring the side of the Mt Parker/Quarry Gap area looking for PB 45, I noticed two small squares marked on one map . Although they didn't appear to be anywhere near the expected PB area, I can never ignore something apparently man-made. Having fought my way down from Mt Parker Road through some distinctly unfriendly vegetation, I eventually bumped into them.
They seem to be the base of one of the stanchions for the ropeway to the Sanatorium/Sanatarium. Why these two should be marked, I have no idea
Please leave a comment below if you can help provide any more information about this.
Regards, David
Comments
Re: Taikoo Ropeway
Plate 2-5 dated 1895 from the Mapping Hong Kong book also shows the aerial ropeway (which is identified, however, as an overhead tram) running from Quarry Gap to a position near the Taikoo Sugar Refinery.
As the ropeway was run by a private company, not much information is available through the public archives. However, the only item that is worth sharing is that an entry has been made for 1904 that the cable car route of the Mount Parker Tramway was doubled-lined that year. Cheers.
Re: Taikoo Ropeway
Thanks Moddsey, I hadn't noticed it shown on that other map.
Here's the quote Moddsey mentioned, taken from the Report of the Director of Public Works, for the year 1904:
Duplication of the Mount Parker Tramway
This cable car route at the Tai Koo Sugar Refinery has been doubled during the year.
That led to this quote from the 'Nature Touch' website:
In 1881, Taikoo Sugar Company acquired land along the coast of Quarry Bay to develop the Taikoo Sugar Factory. Since the company built staff quarters in the Mount Parker area, to facilitate movement, it also developed Hong Kong's first ever cable car system in 1892.
C. M. Guildford's summary of Civil engineering in Hong Kong also gives it a couple of mentions. First he guesses it may have been related to the Tai Tam reservoir:
On an uncontoured 1895 version of Collinson's plan (1845), there
is an interesting feature clearly marked "overhead tram" extending 2.3
kilometres between Quarry Bay and Quarry Gap. It seems likely that it
would have been used to transport materials and, perhaps, workmen
associated with the early Tai Tarn reservoir works.
But in an addendum he adds the following correction:
Since this article was first published, a reader has kindly advised
that the purpose of the "overhead tram" referred to in the section on
Water Supply was not as suggested but to provide access to two blocks
of flats used in the summer by the Tai Koo sugar refinery staff. It was
probably erected in 1891 and survived until 1932 when both the flats
and cableway were dismantled.
I walked up to Quarry Gap yesterday. On the north side of the gap, just below the ridge, is a small flat, grassy area. I wondered if there is still any sign of the cablecar platform shown in the photos above. There is a small section of bricks and concrete in about the right place, but nothing I could see that would prove what it was built for.
Memories of the Taikoo Ropeway
This from Dick Worrall:
I remember the foundations of the buildings in the gap (some are still there) as well as the mounts for the pylons. I even used to know a man (former Taikoo Dockyard Manager called Bell) who had travelled up and down the cable car when he was a lad. They were never referred to as a sanitorium in my day but spoken of as accomodation to which the Taikoo families would go up to for the summer months.
Dick was born & raised in Quarry Bay, and is the son of the last Master of the Taikoo tug. Thanks to Dick for his comments, and to Guy for the introduction.
Regards, David
Re: Taikoo Ropeway
Follow-up comments from Dick:
You call it the ropeway, my old man always called it the "cable car". I also remember (down at the "Woodside" (Taikoo Sugar's Manager's House)/Quarry Bay end) some of the metal supports for the cable as being much more substantial that the ones shown in the photographs - possibly because the "drop" in that area was quite sheer as it ran alongside the Taikoo Sugar Refinery's reservoir which was at the entrance to the valley.
Dick's right, 'Cable car' is the usual way to describe it these days. 'Ropeway' is the word that appears on the old maps, and I guess is the old-fashioned way to describe it, along with railway, tramway, etc. 'Ropeway' is still used in some formal documents, eg Hong Kong has an 'Aerial Ropeways (Safety) Ordinance'.