Views along the tram line in the 1950s

This page relies on several of the features we've talked about lately.

If you had a big box of photos of Hong Kong, and I wanted you to make a display like this, I'd ask for something like:

• Give me all photos that show trams,
• and that were taken in the 1950s,
• then lay them out in the order you would see them if you were sitting on an eastbound tram.

"all photos that show trams" - this uses tags. We tell the computer to search for all images that have the tag 'tram'.

"that were taken in the 1950s" - that's easy, we tell the computer to further limit its search to images with a 'date picture taken' between 1950 and 1959.

"lay them out in order" - here we use the 'places shown' . Luckily the tram line runs almost exactly West to East, so we can tell the computer to sort the images by 'ascending longitude'.

Filling in tags, dates, and places takes a bit more time and effort when we create the image. But I think it's worth it, as then it lets us search and view them in more interesting ways.

Tremendous work everyone.

New life for old Hong Kong!

Love to see a similar walkthrough for Queens Road East at different periods in time.

Still so much to see and ponder on around there, especially as you wander up the hill at Star Street (near the original burial ground), or the eerie Ship Street.

Nam Koo terrace, and the tiled footprints of demolished mansions, stairways and paths, and further up the hill what I imagine might have been old dairy sheds...

Still time to catch it, before Sir Gordon buries it all under concrete at some point in the future.

Love to be pointed at some early ordinance survey or other historical maps of that area, and try and rebuild an image of what it all looked like in the past.

Many thanks again to all the contributors and David in particular for sterling research work and commitment.

Best regards

Julian, Singapore

Hi Julian,

Glad to hear you're enjoying the site.

I look forward to seeing what you find out about Wanchai. A good start is "Wanchai. In search of an identity" by Carl T. Smith in the book "Hong Kong. A reader in social history". It covers that area in a lot of detail.

regards, David

Dear all,

A random question got popped at me about trams.  Yesterday my 3-year-old asked whether trams go on bridges, and it got me thinking. 

The tramway system today doesn't seem to have any bridges.  The only one that I can think of is the 'Gooseneck bridge' that went over Bowrington, but it's not here anymore. In any case, what were the exact years that a tram line ran on Gooseneck?

Can anyone enlight me with more instances of trams going across bridges or flyovers down the ages?

breskvar

The latest photo that 80sKid put up is part of a series that include views along the line from approximately Hennessy Road right down to Shau Kei Wan terminus.  If we follow this link

https://picasaweb.google.com/Don1.Irw/HONGKONG1955#5238617446263036226

we will see from photos 15 to 34 the photographer got on a tram and snapped many pictures.  In photos 35 and 36 we can see the boats harboured in Aldrich Bay, which would be just by the side of the tram terminus.

David, my son was very amused when I showed him the Gooseneck Bridge photo with the trams.  Thanks for giving me the link.

breskvar

Absolutely brilliant. And awesome to see what a huge change in just one lifetime - amazing!

Great website.