Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
Date closed / demolished
The 1910 postcard below describes the building as 'Hong Kong Telegraph Office'.
In Soloman Bard's Voices from the past, he describes it as 'a three storey office of the Telegraph'. That suggests it was the offices of the local newspaper The Hongkong Telegraph. However, since the building was the headquarters of Cable & Wireless, I think the 'Telegraph Office' means an office where you could send and receive telegrams.
I haven't found the exact date of construction yet, but it was probably the late 1890's, like the surrounding buildings. David Derrick has a photo showing the building being demolished in 1948.
Photos that show this Place
1902
1902
1908
Comments
Re: Telegraph Office
From HKPL:
The Telegraph Building was built in 1898. It housed two telegraph companies - the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company and the Great Northern Telegraph Company.
See http://gwulo.com/new-oriental-building
From the PWD AR for
From the PWD AR for 1898:
On the eastern portion of the Reclamation, the Telegraph Companies' Offices were completed [...]
Just to confuse things, the
Just to confuse things the next year's report, 1899 PWD AR, has this entry:
The handsome Offices of the United Telegraph Companies next the Hongkong Club were completed and occupied during the year.
We've got two votes for 1898, and one for 1899, so I'll stick with 1898 for now.
Telegraph Companies' Offices
An additional, fourth, storey was added to the building in 1922 (1922 PWD Report, Para.38). Address given as ML276, No.3 Connaught Road. May help to date pre and post 1922 pics of the Central waterfront.