Welcome to Gwulo

Here you'll find over 50,000 pages about old Hong Kong to explore, including over 30,000 photos. The content is added by a friendly community of people who enjoy sharing what we know about Hong Kong's history, and you are very welcome to join us.

Kind regards, David

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Wandering thru old Kowloon - Ho Man Tin Hill 1951

Submitted by Admin on Sun, 11/01/2009 - 18:22
  • 0:00 - 0:20: Various short clips around Tsim Sha Tsui
  • 0:21 - 1:43: Although the title describes it as shot in Kowloon, this section shows the old Luna Park amusement park in North Point.
  • 1:44 - 2:00: Ho Man Tin Road
  • 2:00 - end: Squatter village behind Ho Man Tin Road

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133601 youtube://v/62VyA5Yqvjc

Gloucester Building / Gloucester Hotel [1932-1977]

Submitted by David on Sat, 10/31/2009 - 23:08

I had the feeling that the Gloucester Building and Gloucester Hotel were two separate places (or possibly different buildings on the same plot). But the first mention of the hotel in the newspapers was the 4 Aug 1935 issue of the Sunday Herald, noting a wedding reception held there. That means the Gloucester Building and Gloucester Hotel were in existence at the same time.

So was the Gloucester Hotel the business name for the 'apartment house' described in the Feb 1932 clipping below?

Gwulo sells out

Submitted by David on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 12:10

You'll have noticed that Tuesday's photo is a bit different from the usual. But what won't have been obvious is that it's a first step towards selling old photos on Gwulo.com. Here's the story so far....

From time to time people ask if they can buy copies of the photos shown on this site. Each time I've explained that 'sorry, they aren't my photos, so you'll need to contact the owner.' Then a couple of months ago the lightbulb went on and I thought, hold on, if people want to buy old photos of Hong Kong, why shouldn't they buy them here?

The Hong Kong Heritage Project

Submitted by hkheritageproject on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 10:52

The Hong Kong Heritage Project (HKHP) was established in 2007 by Sir Michael Kadoorie with the mandate of safe-guarding the history of Kadoorie businesses, both past and present. Since then, HKHP has developed into a serious archive facility used by both students and researchers alike, with thousands of original papers, films and photos chronicling Hong Kong’s twentieth century narrative.

Video: Historical development of the Central District

Submitted by David on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 22:42

Last Saturday, Dr. Patrick Hase gave a very interesting talk on this subject. I managed to catch most of it on my digital camera, and Dr Hase has kindly allowed me to put it up on the internet for all to see. (The presentation slides are available for download too)

It's really worth watching - he obviously knows a huge amount about the subject, and is a very good speaker too (though he was suffering from a heavy cold on this day).