The 3 blocks were Old Halls. I believe only one block still stood there nowaday. The one with blue roof behind the 3 blocks is the Robert Black College.
Please see the "Eliot Hall and May Hall" page for details. May Hall is the one further up the hill. The ends of both buildings were reconstructed after a landslide, so they look different from Lugard Hall (which was the one closest to the camera) in the photograph. Unfortunately, the unaltered building was demolished to make way for new buildings.
It was on a rainly Sunday in June 1966. My family was living in an apartment at the end of Lyttelton Road, within eyesight of the Old Halls. It had been raininly for days already. I was standing by the balcony glass door and suddenly I saw a flash of lighting touching down to the direction of the eastern end of the Old Halls. That followed by a loud thunder and I witnessed the entire slope east of the Old Halls being washed down, all in seconds and exposing part of the buildings'. Weeks after, when weather dried out, construction workers demolished parts of the buildings and built reinforce structure to maintain the stability. It was just assumed that no one was buried inside the slope as it was rining very heavy at the moment of the landslide. There used to be a level foot path leading from the end of Lyttelton Road into the University campus. That was entirly covered. Eventuually, the mud were never removed, for fear of futher landslide. Later, a road from the end of Lyttelton Road was built on the new slope.
This poor photograph (a scan from a Minox subminiature transparency) shows the end of the halls of residence undermined by the landslide. Robin Maneely, the warden of Eliot Hall, and his wife, Elspeth, were evacuated to an empty flat in 3 University Drive. Robin, one of the very few veterinary graduates in Hong Kong in the 1960s, was senior lecturer in histology in the Department of Anatomy.
University Halls after the landslide of June 1966, by Stephanie Peaker
Comments
The University of Hong Kong
The 3 blocks were Old Halls. I believe only one block still stood there nowaday. The one with blue roof behind the 3 blocks is the Robert Black College.
2 Blocks remain
Eliot Hall and May Hall remain.
Old Halls in HKU
Please see the "Eliot Hall and May Hall" page for details. May Hall is the one further up the hill. The ends of both buildings were reconstructed after a landslide, so they look different from Lugard Hall (which was the one closest to the camera) in the photograph. Unfortunately, the unaltered building was demolished to make way for new buildings.
HKU Old Halls
It was on a rainly Sunday in June 1966. My family was living in an apartment at the end of Lyttelton Road, within eyesight of the Old Halls. It had been raininly for days already. I was standing by the balcony glass door and suddenly I saw a flash of lighting touching down to the direction of the eastern end of the Old Halls. That followed by a loud thunder and I witnessed the entire slope east of the Old Halls being washed down, all in seconds and exposing part of the buildings'. Weeks after, when weather dried out, construction workers demolished parts of the buildings and built reinforce structure to maintain the stability. It was just assumed that no one was buried inside the slope as it was rining very heavy at the moment of the landslide. There used to be a level foot path leading from the end of Lyttelton Road into the University campus. That was entirly covered. Eventuually, the mud were never removed, for fear of futher landslide. Later, a road from the end of Lyttelton Road was built on the new slope.
AET
HKU Old Halls
More info: http://www0.hku.hk/hkumag/hkuhistory2.html and
http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/Museum/Monument/en/trails_west1.php?tid=8
HKU Old Halls
Mr. Tse: Thanks for sharing the eyewitness account.
moddsey: The HKU site about the old buildings is great. I wish they have more photographs though.
HKU Old Halls
This poor photograph (a scan from a Minox subminiature transparency) shows the end of the halls of residence undermined by the landslide. Robin Maneely, the warden of Eliot Hall, and his wife, Elspeth, were evacuated to an empty flat in 3 University Drive. Robin, one of the very few veterinary graduates in Hong Kong in the 1960s, was senior lecturer in histology in the Department of Anatomy.