New Tennis Court, Kennels 1918.jpg

Sat, 11/21/2020 - 22:57
Date picture taken
1918

Comments

The Kennels was 524, The Peak. It was was located at Coombe Road. There is a place for it.

517, The Peak was close by and is named "Cadzow" in the 1924 peak map and can be seen here on the map (north-west of 524, The Peak). 

Yes, I was aware there were two houses (at least) involved. It is a bit confusing as my mother, who was born in Hong Kong in 1919 wrote about the house at 517 The Peak and drew the floor plan when she was a young girl as it is in an album of that time frame. However, all the pictures of "The Kennel" are dated 1918 in my Grandfather's hand.  

This is the view looking south west from Coombe Road, which runs out of sight on the other side and below the two houses. It's an unusual angle. I hadn't seen an early photo taken from this position and direction before.

The two houses in the foreground are "The Kennels" and "Harford". In 1918, when the photo was taken, their respective addresses were 168 and 169 The Peak.

According to the 1909 map ( http://gwulo.com/media/14774 ), "The Kennels" was the house on the left with "Harford" on the right, but the maps of 1912 ( https://gwulo.com/media/13074 ) and 1924 ( http://gwulo.com/media/13018 ) reverse their positions.

The house numbering system on Coombe Road allocated the lowest numbers to buildings nearest Magazine Gap, then sequentially higher numbers to those further down the road towards Wanchai Gap. "The Kennels" was given a lower number than "Harford" in the renumbering exercises of 1904, 1914 and 1924, suggesting "The Kennels" was nearer to Magazine Gap and therefore the one on the right in the photo.

Also, the tennis court in the photo is nearer to the house on the right than the left. Taken at face value, the photo caption "New tennis court at The Kennels", implies that the court belongs to the nearest house, so "The Kennels" should be the house on the right.

Of the above sources, only the 1909 map tells us "The Kennels" is the house on the left in the old photo, so I'll go with all the other sources and say that "The Kennels" is on the right with "Harford" on the left.

The very long building in the middle distance is the Military Sanitarium ( https://gwulo.com/node/18740 ). From its right end a path leads down an incline to a building of which we can see only the gable end. In the 1923 map ( https://gwulo.com/media/41713 ), a building is marked in this approximate location and labelled "moveable (illegible)ment shed". Can anyone make out the middle word? It may be a water pumping house as the much earlier map ( https://gwulo.com/media/40789 ) shows a "Pump House" servicing a well in this location.

Continuing up the ridgeline from this building brings us to a small white bungalow, which I think was the "Military Bungalow" ( https://gwulo.com/node/41767 ). Further still up the same ridgeline another, bigger, building peeps out. This maybe "Craigmin East & West ( https://gwulo.com/node/5704 ).

In the far distance is another ridgeline. Its triangular shaped peak is Mount Kellett. The silhouettes of buildings on its left flank are on its southern slopes, with the lowest seen probably being the Matilda Hospital. To the right of the Mount Kellett peak the ridgeline merges with another that in reality is much nearer the camera. The two silhouetted buildings immediately to the right of the Mount Kellett peak are the houses named "Slemish" ( https://gwulo.com/node/5348 ) and "Cheltondale" ( https://gwulo.com/node/5347 ).

Thanks for posting this very interesting photo.