Victoria Battery, Central [1890-c.1920]

Submitted by Rob on Mon, 03/19/2012 - 21:43
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
Date closed / demolished
(Year is approximate.)

Year completed is: Accurate
Condition at last visit: Demolished
Date of last visit: Apr-1998
Ref: ROB-00167
Other:

Timeline:

  • 1888: Construction commenced in August, estimated cost £3,000.  (WO 78/5363).
  • 1890: Construction completed in October, actual cost £4,079.  (WO 78/5363).
  • 1890: Initial Armament: 1 x 9.2" BL Mk IV gun on RCD mounting.  (WO 78/5363).
  • 1894: 1 x 9.2" BL gun.  (CAB 11/57).
  • 1897: 1 x 9.2" BL gun.  (CAB 11/57).
  • 1900: 1 x 9.2" BL gun.  (CAB 11/57).
  • 1901: 1 x 9.2" BL gun.  (CAB 11/57).
  • 1903: 1 x 9.2" BL gun.  (CAB 11/57).
  • 1904: 1 x 9.2" BL gun.  (CAB 11/57).
  • 1905: 1 x 9.2" BL gun.  (CAB 11/57).
  • 1906: 1 x 9.2" BL gun.  (CAB 11/57).
  • 1907: 1 x 9.2" BL gun, to be reduced.  (CAB 11/57).
  • 1909: Not listed.
  • 1920: Land transferred to the Colonial Government.  (WO 78/6009)

For a background to these notes, and a glossary of terms used, please see: http://gwulo.com/node/24630  

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Photos that show this Place

Victoria Battery 1889.jpg
1889
1890 Site plan of Victoria Battery
1890s
Old gun, November 1925
1925
See more photos of this place

Comments

Hi there,

I have a faint impression that the location of this battery now sits the resident of the University Lodge.  I remember reading from some newspapers that there is an old canon on display in there somewhere.

Best Regards,

T

Hi Thomas, you're right - I walked up there this morning and passed the gun. Here's the note from the Guns & Gunners of Hong Kong book:

About 1965 a house for the Vice Chancellor of the Hong Kong University was built upon the site. The builiders were hampered by the fact that the old 10 inch gun barrel was still there. ((Earlier in the notes he describes the gun as a '9.2 inch BL Mark IV' model.)) The University authorities tried to get the army to move it but with no success. Eventually it was decided to incorporate it into the garden and it is mounted on a stone plinth and has an explanatory plaque attached to it. No signs of the battery buildings can be found or the gun pit but it is certain that it was quite close to where the gun is now.

Regards, David

"While the foundations were being prepared on the old Victoria Battery site for a new Vice-Chancellor's Lodge to replace the old Principal's House, converted into four flats in 1948, a large naval gun of late Victorian design was uncovered......... Attempts were made to persuade all branches of the Armed Forces to reclaim possession and remove the weapon, since removal tackle for an object of its size and weight would have had to be sent from Singapore. Immovable by the Forces, it was declared University property, and of course a University problem. A team of ten contractor's labourers, with much ho-ing and heaving contrived to shift it in two days from its hole to the edge of the site, where it is now erected as a landmark."

Source: The University of Hong Kong, An Informal History, Page 104 by Bernard Mellor, Published in 1980

See other comments at: https://gwulo.com/node/30144#17~22.28146~114.14008~Map_by_GovHK-Markers~100