"The collection of four Government buildings shown on the 1845 plan was replaced by one large building, constructed from 1847 to 1848. This was situated to the south of the Heard and Co. building and had its main façade to the west. The foundation stone was laid on 24th February 1847 and was completed the following year at a cost of £14,39327. The building was referred to as the ‘Government Offices, St. John’s Place’ and the departments housed in it included the Colonial Secretary’s Department and the Council Chamber on the first floor and the Public Works Department (PWD) on the ground floor."
If I were to only associate the photo of the relevant building, then we would not be able to enjoy the "then-and-now" photos a la HKMan on Flickr -through the generations. I'm not sure how you want to handle this David.
One of the many ideas for "things to do" is to add an automatic then-and-now, or possibly a timeline. So if you look at a location you'll see a timeline of buildings that have been on that spot, and a mini-gallery for each one. Of course that doesn't work if the photos are linked to every version of the building, which is another reason to only link a photo to Places that are visible in the photo.
But as you point out, then we miss the then-and-now comparisons, which we all enjoy seeing. The current gwuloish way to handle this is to edit the place for the current CGO Offices, and fill in its 'Previous place(s) at this location:' with this, older Place.
Then someone looking at this page who wonders what the area looks like now can click the "Later at this location" link that will appear in the right column. That will take them to the current Place and the newer photo. Easier to do than explain!
Or if you see two photos like these from a similar viewpoint, you might just want to highlight the similarity in a comment:
Then:
and Now:
Hopefully that makes sense - but let me know if it doesn't. I know all these extra fields to fill in can seem like too much 'jumping through hoops' when we often just want to post up a photo for others to see. But the extra work pays off in the long term. It builds strong foundations that we can use to make it easier for new visitors to find related information, however they start their visit to Gwulo.com.
According to the website below, this building was used by the Kempeitai (Gendarmes) during the occupation, and many people believed that ghosts (presumably of their victims) could be seen here and at the Supreme Court Building (the main Kempeitai HQ):
Workmen unearthed the foundation stone of the original building which had been demolished in 1954. A bronze plaque in florid characters indicated the foundation stone was laid on _?_th day of February, 1847 by Governor Davis with Major Aldrich, Commanding Royal Engineer in attendance.
[Thank you to John P. Burns for sharing these notes from his research into the development of this area. He uses the label CSO (Colonial Secretary's Office) for this building, and CGO (Central Government Offices) to refer to the buildings built here in the 1950s.]
Officials vacated the building during the construction of the new story and moved back in January 1929.
1942-45: Japanese occupation, war damage
From 1942-45 the Japanese Military Government set up the occupied Hong Kong government headquarters in the new HSBC Head Office Building (1935-84) on Queen’s Road. The CSO and PWD temporary buildings suffered considerable damage during the war.
1945: British return, building refurbished
The war over, in 1945 British authorities rehabilitated the CSO. On October 14, 1945 the Secretariat and General Administration Branch of the Civil Affairs Administration of the British Military Administration moved from the HSBC Head Office Building, where they took over from the Japanese military government, into the rehabilitated CSO (PRO file HKRS156-1-3).
The British Military authorities handed over governing authority to the civilian colonial government on May 1, 1946. The colonial government continued to be headquartered in the CSO until 1952(?) when the building was demolished.
1945 floor plans of the first and second floors help us to understand the allocation of offices. Authorities reserved offices for the most senior officials on the second floor, probably as they did in the 1930s. The plans show that the head of the BMA Civil Affairs Administration, Chief Civil Affairs Officer MacDougall moved into #9, just to the left of the staircase/lift on the East side of the building. This may have been the Colonial Secretary’s office in the 1930s. The BMA General Administration Branch occupied offices #4, #5, and #6. Almost as soon as the move was completed the Branch moved to the 1st floor and Teesdale, Holmes (Deputy Clerk of the Legislative and Executive Councils, 1946-47), and Follows (became FS in 1946), initially allocated offices on the 1st floor (#25 and #26) moved into these offices on the 2nd floor.
PWD annual reports first mention air conditioning of government buildings in 1948 for Government House. With a flat roof apparently the CSO 2nd floor was so hot that the government erected a matshed temporary cover over it during summer months. The promise of air conditioning in the new CGO was apparently very appealing.
1950: Plans for the new buildings
PWD annual reports first mention plans for the new CGO in 1950 (1950 PWDAR, para 70).
Authorities planned to build the CGO in stages housing the PWD in the first to be completed East Wing. The government would then demolish the CSO, building the Central Wing on its site, with the West Wing to follow. (1950-51 PWDAR para 9-13).
Comments
re: Central Government Offices
These were completed in 1848:
"The collection of four Government buildings shown on the 1845 plan was replaced by one large building, constructed from 1847 to 1848. This was situated to the south of the Heard and Co. building and had its main façade to the west. The foundation stone was laid on 24th February 1847 and was completed the following year at a cost of £14,39327. The building was referred to as the ‘Government Offices, St. John’s Place’ and the departments housed in it included the Colonial Secretary’s Department and the Council Chamber on the first floor and the Public Works Department (PWD) on the ground floor."
page 71 http://www.amo.gov.hk/form/research_CGO_e.pdf
Location through history
If I were to only associate the photo of the relevant building, then we would not be able to enjoy the "then-and-now" photos a la HKMan on Flickr -through the generations.
I'm not sure how you want to handle this David.
re: Location through history
One of the many ideas for "things to do" is to add an automatic then-and-now, or possibly a timeline. So if you look at a location you'll see a timeline of buildings that have been on that spot, and a mini-gallery for each one. Of course that doesn't work if the photos are linked to every version of the building, which is another reason to only link a photo to Places that are visible in the photo.
But as you point out, then we miss the then-and-now comparisons, which we all enjoy seeing. The current gwuloish way to handle this is to edit the place for the current CGO Offices, and fill in its 'Previous place(s) at this location:' with this, older Place.
Then someone looking at this page who wonders what the area looks like now can click the "Later at this location" link that will appear in the right column. That will take them to the current Place and the newer photo. Easier to do than explain!
Or if you see two photos like these from a similar viewpoint, you might just want to highlight the similarity in a comment:
Then:
and Now:
Hopefully that makes sense - but let me know if it doesn't. I know all these extra fields to fill in can seem like too much 'jumping through hoops' when we often just want to post up a photo for others to see. But the extra work pays off in the long term. It builds strong foundations that we can use to make it easier for new visitors to find related information, however they start their visit to Gwulo.com.
Regards, David
According to the website
According to the website below, this building was used by the Kempeitai (Gendarmes) during the occupation, and many people believed that ghosts (presumably of their victims) could be seen here and at the Supreme Court Building (the main Kempeitai HQ):
http://www.orientalwomentalk.net/Japanese_invasion.html
Foundation stone
Moddsey writes:
China Mail 27 August 1954
Workmen unearthed the foundation stone of the original building which had been demolished in 1954. A bronze plaque in florid characters indicated the foundation stone was laid on _?_th day of February, 1847 by Governor Davis with Major Aldrich, Commanding Royal Engineer in attendance.
Government offices in later years
[Thank you to John P. Burns for sharing these notes from his research into the development of this area. He uses the label CSO (Colonial Secretary's Office) for this building, and CGO (Central Government Offices) to refer to the buildings built here in the 1950s.]
1928: Extra story added
The government added an extra story to the CSO in 1928, construction well described in the Heritage Impact Assessment of the CGO p.15. (https://www.aab.gov.hk/filemanager/aab/common/159meeting/AAB-40-2011-12…; original source: 1928 PWDAR, para 203; 1929 PWDAR, para 108).
Officials vacated the building during the construction of the new story and moved back in January 1929.
1942-45: Japanese occupation, war damage
From 1942-45 the Japanese Military Government set up the occupied Hong Kong government headquarters in the new HSBC Head Office Building (1935-84) on Queen’s Road. The CSO and PWD temporary buildings suffered considerable damage during the war.
1945: British return, building refurbished
The war over, in 1945 British authorities rehabilitated the CSO. On October 14, 1945 the Secretariat and General Administration Branch of the Civil Affairs Administration of the British Military Administration moved from the HSBC Head Office Building, where they took over from the Japanese military government, into the rehabilitated CSO (PRO file HKRS156-1-3).
The British Military authorities handed over governing authority to the civilian colonial government on May 1, 1946. The colonial government continued to be headquartered in the CSO until 1952(?) when the building was demolished.
1945 floor plans of the first and second floors help us to understand the allocation of offices. Authorities reserved offices for the most senior officials on the second floor, probably as they did in the 1930s. The plans show that the head of the BMA Civil Affairs Administration, Chief Civil Affairs Officer MacDougall moved into #9, just to the left of the staircase/lift on the East side of the building. This may have been the Colonial Secretary’s office in the 1930s. The BMA General Administration Branch occupied offices #4, #5, and #6. Almost as soon as the move was completed the Branch moved to the 1st floor and Teesdale, Holmes (Deputy Clerk of the Legislative and Executive Councils, 1946-47), and Follows (became FS in 1946), initially allocated offices on the 1st floor (#25 and #26) moved into these offices on the 2nd floor.
PWD annual reports first mention air conditioning of government buildings in 1948 for Government House. With a flat roof apparently the CSO 2nd floor was so hot that the government erected a matshed temporary cover over it during summer months. The promise of air conditioning in the new CGO was apparently very appealing.
1950: Plans for the new buildings
PWD annual reports first mention plans for the new CGO in 1950 (1950 PWDAR, para 70).
Authorities planned to build the CGO in stages housing the PWD in the first to be completed East Wing. The government would then demolish the CSO, building the Central Wing on its site, with the West Wing to follow. (1950-51 PWDAR para 9-13).