Thanks very much for identifying the location of the picture. As you ask I have uploaded the other picture. On th reverse it says: "This is near our flat the childrens' playground". The couple in the picture are my great aunt and uncle, Charles and Ellen Olson. He was a director of Thoresens Shipping as far as I know until he left HK in the late 20s.
Charles W Olson and Ethel also lived at 13 Broadwood Road in 1913 and I think that house was probably the property of my grandfather John Olson or perhaps my great grandfather who was also named John Olson.
The postcard you have added is brilliant and very like cards I have in the family collection. I posted a b/w of Happy Valley showing two houses my family lived in.
You can reference these other posts I have made regarding Broadwood Road by searching for John Olson.
As I have said I also posted another picture of the bungalow in which you may be able to make out two headlands to the left of the house. Whether that helps I don't know. I have a memory of being told that some of the family had a summer house near Repluse Bay. May be wrong there. Getting old!
Thanks again.
Comments
Re: More on where is this
This photo was taken in Kowloon in front of a Chinese styled open-air pavilion that used to stand on a grassy strip (park ?) between the Kowloon Canton Railway tracks and Chatham Road. The location of the pavilion was very close to where Prat Avenue/Cameron Road met up with Chatham Road, a stone's throw from your great uncle's residence.
The photographer was facing north. To the left is Chatham Road beyond the fence. On the right out of sight is the railway line.
A similar postcard shot from 1910s which gives a better view of the Pavilion and the general description of the scene. The houses on the hill are the barracks at Gun Club Hill. The road leading up to the barracks is still there today.
Chatham Road
Moddsey your detective skills are unparalleled. Fyi I added a photo showing the other side of the pavilio but couldn't find it under the list when I tried to embed here.
Anyone able to pinpoint the location? then you'd be able to view what's there now on Streetview
chatham road playground
worth noting that while the open spaces look attractive to the modern Hong Konger - the children's playgrouns Sean mentions was memorably described as 'drab, dusty and in the evening a coolies' spitoon' around the time they lived nearby. The following is from Legco proceedings 19 sept. 1929 by HON. MR. J. P. BRAGA―
In the opinion of residents of Tsim Sha Tsui, another matter of more or less urgency calls for immediate attention on the part of the Government. I refer to the children's playground. This also has been sympathetically touched upon by the Senior Unofficial Member. Residents of Kowloon begin almost to despair that children across the harbour will ever be considered worthy of the solicitude of Government in the provision of a suitable ground in a convenient locality where children could run and play about within an area free from the objectionable features to be found in the railed-in portion of the railway ground on Chatham Road dignified with the name of a "Children's Playground."
In the senior morning newspaper of the 10th September will be found a plaintive appeal on behalf of the children of Kowloon. I should not be surprised if it be that of some British mother vainly pleading for an amelioration of a condition not too creditable to the Colony in the matter of playgrounds at Kowloon. A brief extract from that letter may serve some useful purpose if, perchance, it escaped notice from those to whom the letter was designed to appeal.
The writer condemned last year's saving of $22,000 on the proposed children's playground as "an eloquent and practical comment on the 'high falutin' sentiments expressed at the last Legislative Council meeting." The writer describes the Chatham Road playground as "drab, dusty and in the evening a coolies' spittoon; it is positively dangerous. It fronts a long stretch of straight road which offers a temptation to motorists, which, as a whole, they do not and cannot be expected to resist. The railings are about a couple of feet high, and take an active child of four some five seconds to scale. It is easy to 'save' money by allowing such a wretched place to go unimproved.
http://www.legco.gov.hk/lcsearch/showdoc.htm?mylink=/search/marker?s=1&o=2&t=2&a=15&r=2&k=1,&g=0&PROPERTY=2;&MERGEFIELD=-&CODECONVERT=-&SORTFIELDS=-&SIM_START=1&SIM_NUM=10&REL_START=1&REL_NUM=10&LINK=-&REDIRECTTO=-&PATHLINK=-&p=chatham%20road%20&c=17,1&i=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.legco.gov.hk%2F1929%2Fh290919.pdf&j=117&v=&n=&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.legco.gov.hk%2F1929%2Fh290919.pdf
Re: Chatham Road Children's Playground
I have created a place for the Pavilion under Old Chatham Road Children's Playground Pavilion. Please feel free to adjust the location. You may also wish to tag the 1920s photo with the Pavilion that you posted.
The Pavilion (shelter) was built in 1919 with a reinforced concrete fence built around the site.
For Kowloon TST residents, the Chatham Road Playground was the forerunner to the ones in Middle Road and later Cox's Road.
Here are some amazing photos of Chatham Road from 1912 albeit without the Pavilion:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjacques/122603999/in/set-7215759415089783…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjacques/122604000/in/set-7215759415089783…
Re: Chatham Road Children's Playground
Can only say thanks to all.