Unknown

Tue, 09/23/2014 - 00:01

Any idea?

Date picture taken
1890s
Shows place(s)

Comments

Hi there,

Would the hand writing on the photo be the name of the house?  I noticed the photo seemed to show two small guns as outdoor decorations.

By the look of it, I guess that should be somewhere at the Peak, or along the ridge line toward Magazine Gap/Wanchai Gap/Middle Gap.

Could to list of the Peak Building help?

Best Regards,

T

On closer inspection, more likely to be Upper Albert and Albany Roads, with that house being the old College Gardens building, where Church Guest House/Martin House is now? 

This looks more like the junction of Upper/Lower Albert Roads (below Government House and former CGO).  Albany Road is on a continuous decline coming down from Robinson and onward to Glenealy.

But at first glance I thought it would be somewhere on the Peak or maybe Macdonnell/Kennedy Roads.

As for that "xxxx for Hong Kong"... can't figure it out.

 

Thanks. I must confess to having an unfair advantage though, as I lived in Church Guest House for 10 years, so that view, however old, must be fairly embedded in the subconcious.

It is interesting to note the greenery around at the time particularly the tree at the junction of Albany and Upper Albert Roads. Makes me wonder whether Glenealy (the road) extended down the slope to Wyndham St at the time. Cheers.

There was quite a bit of change there in the 1960s when the bridge/flyover was built to connect Caine Road with Upper Albert. Before then, I think Albany and Upper Albert merged and went downhill around the northern edge of the west side of the Botanical Gardens, and round to Caine Road, and Glenealy was a just a pathway. Though even looking at the junction from right there, today it's hard to visualise what it really looked like. Old maps help a bit.  

The original photo at the top of this thread shows College Gardens (and so is pre 1919). The later b&w photo that I linked to shows Church Guesthouse, latterly kown as Martin House*, which was built on the same site. 

*Although some utility co. bills sent to the building still say Church Guesthouse.