Building on corner of Queen's Rd E. & Morrison Hill Road [????-1976]

Submitted by David on Mon, 02/21/2011 - 18:22
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date closed / demolished

If anyone knows dates of completion / demolition or the name of the building, please could you leave a comment below?

Thanks, David

Later place(s) at this location
Grand View Mansion [1966- ]
Xinhua News Agency Building [1989- ]

Photos that show this Place

Happy Valley race course-Jubilee Parade-aerial-1935
1935
Happy Valley Racecourse - Japanese (2 of 2)
1935
1935
See more photos of this place

Comments

I asked Barbara Anslow if she knew the building's name, as she lived here in 1940/1. She replied:

Our address in 1940/1 was No.5 Gap Road, I never heard that that block of flats had a name.  Prior to the 1940 evacuation, a number of Army families lived there, altho as far as I know they weren't actually Army quarters.

Thanks for Barbara's help,

Regards, David

This building still existed till 1971, here is a photo taken by an American in Jun 1971, showing the building was there but some parts of the building had been demolished.

This building is now where Cosmo Hotel stands, and it was the headquarter of Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch from 1978 to 2004 when it moved to 381 Queen's Road East. It is claimed that the headquarter was converted from a nearly completed hotel with a quotation from Chinese Wikipedia given.

"新華通訊社香港分社初時座落香港島灣仔皇后大道東387號，該建築原為一間接近完工的酒店，於1960年代末被新華通訊社購入改建。2004年，該社搬遷到附近的皇后大道東381號，原址則恢復為酒店用途，現為麗都酒店。"

If the rebuilt building would have been a hotel, it might have a name of "亞洲飯店" in Chinese, as there's an article suggested Teresa Teng met Communist Chinese officials there.

This building might be demolished some time between 1971 and 1978, I guess it was most probably demolished in 1975.

Henry Ching writes:

Wrt your question on the demolition date of the building on the corner of Queen’s Road E. and Morrison Hill Road, are you referring to the entire building which ran from the Sikh Temple to Morrison Hill Road?  Or are you referring to only that part of the building on the corner that was occupied by the Xinhua News Agency? 

If you are referring to the entire building, this was a large terrace of flats and my memory (which may well be wrong) is that towards the end of its life it was under multiple ownership, so that sections of it were sold separately by the different owners, and demolished and redeveloped, at different times.

It's possible to make different Places for the individual sections, but for now I'll refer to the whole building. So the demolition date shown above will be the date the last section of it was demolished.

Regards, David

Anyone have any idea what was written on the monument/obelsik located at the blend.   I used to pass by that place everyday when I was a young kid.  I understand quite a few similar monuments had been relocated to the HK cemetery. Knowledge of the  inscription  may help me  identify the particular one I used to walk by everyday.

FYI in the early sixties the empty land shown on the 1940 photo was turned into a car lot selling Opel, a petrol station and further down a garage that fix Vauxhall taxis.  

My elderlies told me during the war, a battery of anti-aircraft guns was once mounted on the roof of the rowhouse. Hence part of the building was strafed and had to be rebuilt.  Recent news about an unexploded bomb located near the rowhouse seems to confirm that some air-ground battle once took place in the area.

"http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1422151/hundreds-evacuated-s…"

 

I wonder if this it? 

15 European Houses To Let at Morrison Hill Gap The China Mail page 2 21st April 1902
15 European Houses To Let at Morrison Hill Gap The China Mail page 2 21st April 1902, by eurasian_david

If it was near completion when first advertised on 10th March 1902 and still advertised to let on 21st April 1902, safe to say it was completed April 1902